


Not an angel

by Dude_Bro_Fam_Squad



Category: Sander Sides
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-18
Updated: 2019-06-18
Packaged: 2020-05-14 05:18:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 30
Words: 27,083
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19266628
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dude_Bro_Fam_Squad/pseuds/Dude_Bro_Fam_Squad
Summary: So, I am redoing my other work called Dark Secrets. Chapters 1 and 2 will be the same, but I am redoing the rest.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So, I am redoing my other work called Dark Secrets. Chapters 1 and 2 will be the same, but I am redoing the rest.

It was finally the day that Virgil would move out of the Stay Awhile Inn. (The name is quite literal, most people are simply there for a vacation, but there were five residents who practicality lived there, because it was a cheap place to live). Though the new place would be bigger, he would have to share it with three other young men.

When Virgil got to the door of the apartment, he was shaking. He stood there for a minute before getting the courage to raise his hand and knock on the door.

When the door opened, a man with a button up shirt, blue tie, and grey eyes behind black glasses stared back at him.

“Greetings, my name is Logan.” He held his hand out to Virgil. “You must be our new roommate. You’re name?”

“V-Virgil.” He shook Logans hand briefly, but pulling his hand away as soon as possible, shoving his hand back into the black hoodie.

“Come in.” Logan went into the living room with Virgil behind him. There were two other boys in there, one was acting out a scene from some movie while the other was sitting on the couch, giggling. The one acting had red hair, green eyes, and a white shirt with a red stripe across the front. The other had dirty blond hair that had slight curls, bright blue eyes behind glasses that matched Logan’s, and a light blue tee shirt, with a gray jacket tied around his neck

“Roman and Patton.” Logan gestured at the two. Roman looked up when he heard his name.

“So... not the pizza?” Roman tan a hand through his red hair.

“Roman!” Patton scolded, getting op off the couch and putting his hands on his hips. “Our new roommate is more important than pizza!”

“Alright DAD.” Roman rolled his eyes. “Anyway,” he walked up to Virgil and bowed dramatically. “Prince Roman, at your service.” Virgil raised his eyebrow.

“Roman, I do believe we have established that you are not royalty.” Logan interjected.

Roman scoffed, righting himself. “Party pooper.”

Logan tilted his head. “There was no party, as far as I am concerned, and I was definitely not using the restroom.”

“OH MY GOD!” Roman threw his hands up and glared at him, then turned to Virgil. “He takes, like, everything to seriously. I’m Roman, who are you.”

“I’m, um, V-Virgil.” 

“Well, nice to meet you Virgil!” Patton came over. “Your room is over there, I hope you don’t mind, it’s pretty small. Roman took the biggest, Lo took the smallest, and I took the almost-biggest.” He pointed at each room as he mentioned them.

“It’s fine. I don’t have much stuff, anyway.” Virgil only had a backpack and a duffel bag, plus a small cardboard box. “Oh! Uhm...”

“Yes, Virgil?” Logan asked.

“I... uh... kinda forgot to mention, I have a... snake?” The last word came out kind of like a question.

“OOH! Can I see it?” Patton jumped up and down, clapping his hands.

“Yeah.” Virgil set down his duffel bag, and took the box from where he had tucked it from under his arm. He opened the box and put his hand in it.

A small green snake, about two feet long slithered up his arm, winding around his pale skin, slowly climbing up towards his shoulder.

“Awww he so cute!” Patton cooed. “What’s his name?”

“Deceit. Dee for short.” Virgil said, glaring at the snake. 

“Course it is.” Roman mumbled under his breath.

“Uhm, I’m going to unpack my stuff now. You can hold him if you would like. He doesn’t bite.”

“Alright!” Patton was pleased to be able to hold the creature. Virgil held out his hand to Patton, and Dee turned around and crawled onto Patton’s outstretched hands, then Virgil went into his new room.

The room was empty except for a small desk in one corner, and a bed in the other. There were no windows in his room, which Virgil was glad for. His room in the Inn had had a window, and it had let way to much light in.

After unpacking, Virgil came back out. The pizza had arrived, and Patton was getting cups out of one of the cabinets.

“Water, juice, or milk?” Patton asked Virgil, seeing him come out of his room.

“Just water, please.” Virgil looked around. “Where’s Dee?”

Before Patton could say anything, Deceit came out of Patton’s pocket, and Virgil came over to retrieve him.

“Huh. Almost like the little guy heard you ask about him!” Patton said, handing Deceit to Virgil.

“Impossible.” Logan cut in. “Deceit is a snake. He may have heard Virgil’s voice, but he is unable to comprehend what Virgil was saying. It is possible, though, that Deceit responded to the sound of Virgil’s voice, similar to how dogs do.” 

Virgil was glad that Logan had said that, Patton’s comment had made him uncomfortable.

As the four men sat themselves around the table, Deceit made himself comfortable by draping himself around Virgil’s neck.

For most of dinner, Virgil sat in silence, listening in amusement to the chatter of his three roommates. They seemed like a family, and he felt like he was intruding on that.

“Virgil.” Roman said, snapping Virgil out of his train of thought. “Did you hear me? I asked you where you worked.”

“Oh, sorry.” Virgil mumbled. “I kind of had to quit my last job because my boss was a narcissistic dung face.”

Roman cracked up at Virgil’s choice of words.

“Well, you should probably start looking for job openings, so you can get a steady job.” Logan said. 

“Way ahead of you there.” Virgil said. “On Monday I’m going to go to an interview for a job at a craft store downtown.”

“Mff grtt!” Patton said, with a mouthful of pizza. “That’s great!” He tried again, once he finished “hope you get the job!”

“Me to.” Virgil sighed.

“Well, I work at the local theatre, and at a restaurant near here.” Roman announced, putting one hand on his chest.

“And I am employed at the bookstore part time, and have a job that I do from my laptop at home, giving my input on new books for a publishing company.” Logan said.

“I work at a bakery, and the library. I also volunteer at the pet store sometimes.” Patton said. “You could say it’s purrrfect for me.”

At that pun, Logan put his hand on his face, and groaned.

“It’s pancatstic!” Patton giggled.

Logan stared at him. “Did you just... reference your sexuality and make a cat pun at the same time?” He paused. “That was... actually kind of impressive.”

“OH MY GOD! Did Logan just say he appreciated one of Patton’s puns?! Well, I must be dreaming. Have a nice gay everybody!” Roman got up and walked a few paces towards his room.

“Bi, Roman!” Virgil called. Roman soon came back to the table to find his pizza.

“Well, it appears as if we are making puns about our sexuality’s now.” Logan said. “I will not take part in the puns, but I am also gay, if you were wondering, Virgil.”

“Great! Glad to know, none of us are straight!” Roman said.

After the rest of the pizza and a few more puns, the four of them eventually went to their rooms for the night.

Virgil got his pajamas on and got into bed, and Dee curled up in the crook of his elbow. Virgil stroked the snake, and made a mental note to ask Patton where that pet shop was in the morning.

After a practicality sleepless night (having gone to sleep at 2:00) Virgil awoke to the wonderful smell of pancakes. He checked his phone, and it was 8:00, earlier than he preferred to wake up, but got up out of bed anyway.

Virgil picked up Dee, set him on the desk, and got dressed. Before going out of his room, he fed Dee a sort of frozen mouse (it had thawed most of the way), and then he put his eyeshadow on.

When they were ready, Virgil and Dee went out to investigate the delicious pancake smell.

Upon seeing Virgil come out of his room, Patton waved. “Come sit down! I made pancakes and bacon and eggs! I wanted ya to have a great first breakfast together!”

“Aww, you didn’t have to do that!” Virgil said, his pale face going slightly red.

“Well, I wan- AUGH!” Patton exclaimed. “Why do you have a bag of dead mice?!”

“Snakes got to eat.” Virgil chuckled at Patton’s reaction, and put them in the freezer. “Speaking of Dee, where was that pet shop you told me about yesterday?”

Patton told Virgil where it was, and Logan came out of his room, carrying a fat book.

Patton has just finished the last pancake when Roman came out of his room, wearing a red jacket with a yellow crown on the back. “Greetings citizens, and you nerds!” that comment earned a quick hi from Logan.

“Ooooh, breakfast!” Roman exclaimed, sitting himself at the table between Virgil and Logan.

Patton sat down at the table, (having put the pancakes and stuff there already) and they all filled their plates.

“This is great, Patton!” Roman said, drowning his pancakes in syrup.

“I second that.” Logan declared, professionally. Virgil made a noise in agreement, not being able to say anything because of the fact that he was stuffing pancake in his mouth.

The rest of the morning went without difficulty, Virgil hung up posters and stuff, and the others did their things. 

At noon, Virgil left to go to the pet store, deceit curled around his arm.

The walk to the pet store wasn’t very long. Virgil felt small among the crowd of people all hustling about, most of them in a rush to go nowhere.

When he got to the pet store, he looked around, and quickly spotted the reptile section. Virgil was looking at different terrariums for Deceit, when an employee came up behind him.

“Hello, anything I can help you with today sir?” Virgil jumped, and spun around. The employee had light brown hair, and was just a bit taller than Virgil, and looked about 27-28 years old. His name tag read Emile.

“Uh... yes, actually. Do you guys have frozen mice? Like, for snakes?”

“Of course! Nice snake you’ve got there.” He gestured at Deceit. “What’s his name?” 

“Deceit. Dee for short.” 

They talked about snakes while Emile showed Virgil where the frozen mice were. Virgil learned that Emile had three snakes and a leopard gecko of his own, and pet sits for any type of reptile. Apparently Emile really likes reptiles, so much that they actually has a room for his and the ones he pet sits. Virgil also learned that Emile’s preferred pronouns are they/them. 

They gave Virgil a card with contact information and a picture of a snake on it, the card had bonded letters at the top saying “Emile Piccani’s reptile sitting”

Eventually they parted ways, and Virgil went to finish his work of getting a terrarium and stuff to put in it, along with a heatlamp.

Right before paying for the things, Virgil realized the problem of getting all the stuff home. After debating with himself, Virgil texted Patton.

Virge: Hey, pat! R u busy?  
Pat: nah, y?  
Virge: do u think u can drive over meet me at the pet store? I hav a tank for Dee that I can’t cary. I will pay 4 gas  
Pat: sure kiddo! b there in minute! But don’t even think about pay for gas!  
Virge: thx  
Pat: no prob

Virgil went to pay for his things, and a few minutes later, Patton pulled up in his truck. He had a small, light blue truck that had paint peeling all over it, and was kind of rusty, but it worked super well. Patton and Roman both had cars, Logan had a bike, and Virgil just walked everywhere. Roman’s car was a bright red corvette that his father had given him. It was in perfect condition, and Roman loved to show it off.

When Virgil got home, he set up the terrarium, and put Deceit inside of it, then slumped on his bed. Even with Patton’s help, there had been some heavy lifting, and Virgil was definitely not the strongest parson in the world, probably due to him not eating or sleeping enough.

Suddenly, Virgil sat up, then he felt an excruciating pain in the back of his head, and he curled up into a tiny ball, hands pressed over his ears, a staticky sound filling his head. Shadows started to swirl around him, pressing in and pulling away.

“Not again!” He muttered, before blacking out.


	2. Chapter 2

“Virgil? Virgil? Wake up!” Virgil’s head snapped up, and an odd, but not unfamiliar, face peered down at him.

It took him a few minutes to realize what was going on. “DECEIT! What the hell are you DOING?! Your NOT SUPPOSED to TRANSFORM!”

“Hush, keep it down!” He put a gloved finger on Virgil’s lips. “Your roomies might hear you. Anyway, you had a power surge and blacked out! I had to do something.” He rolled his eyes, the golden one flashing when the light hit it.

“Look.” Deceit put a hand on the scaled side of his face. “I know it’s illegal for me to transform or whatever, but my awesome protector just fainted.” His voice sounded sarcastic. Virgil didn’t like it.

“Go back.” Virgil pointed at the terrarium. “Now!”

“But Virgil...”

“I said now! You’re lucky that I was assigned to you, instead of somebody else! Y’know, most guardians lock their Rimi’s up. Most guardians don’t bring their Rimi’s everywhere. Most guardians don’t make sure that their Rimi’s are as comfortable as possible! You did something wrong. My job is to make sure you don’t do it again. Now GO BACK!”

Deceit flared at Virgil.

“I will report you to the Queen!” Virgil threatened. At that, Deceit reluctantly changed himself back into his snake form.

Deceit has changed back just in time, because just then, Patton knocked on Virgil’s door. “Virgil! Dinner!”

Virgil came out of his room to see a lovely dinner of chicken nuggets. 

The next day was Monday, the day Virgil had to go for his interview at the craft store. He was extremely nervous, and woke up super early, so he wouldn’t be late. Virgil made sure to put his eye shadow on evenly, and put on his freshly washed black jacket.

Virgil started out his door, but turned when he heard a hissing noise.

“No, you are not coming. Be good.” He said to Deceit, the walked out the door.

When Virgil arrived at the craft store, he opened the door, and a bell rang.

“Welcome to corner crafts! Do you need any help today?” A guy with an orange beanie said from behind a counter.

“Uhm, I’m Virgil, I’m here for the job interview.”

“Ah, yes! Just go through that door, my boss, Talyn will do your interview.” He pointed at a door behind the counter. “Just don’t get on their bad side. They’re sweet until you do that.”

“Kay, thanks.” Virgil went through the door and found himself in a storage room, where a person with bright turquoise hair was sorting through a box. 

“‘Scuse me, are you Talyn?” Virgil asked timidly.

They turned around, and looked at him through huge round glasses.  
“You must be Virgil.” She held out their hand. Virgil took it, and she gave it a quick shake.

“Name’s Talyn, my pronouns are they/them and I’m non-binary and pansexual, and even though I’m tiny [they were probably 4” 6’] I can kick your butt, so If you are Homophobic or think you don’t do what I say just because I’m tiny, then you can get your but right outta here.” They paused, having said all that in one breath.

“No, it’s fine. I’m bisexual, actually.” Virgil looked at them, tilting his head. They were an interesting person.

“Great! We do a lot of pride stuff during June. Anyway, back to business.”

They asked him a few questions, pretty simple ones like “are you okay with just stocking shelves?” “Are you good at calculating percentage and money stuff?” “How much experience do you have?” And the dreaded question “how good are you with talking to customers?”

Virgil answered each question honestly, and they wrote it all down on a clipboard.

“Great! Me or Joan will email you tomorrow, we have like one more person to interview before we hire anybody.”

“Thank you” Virgil said.

“No, thank you! Bye, have a nice day!” Talyn waved, then turned back to the box they had been going through.

“Bye.” Then he left.

When he got out of the store, Virgil checked the time. It was 9:00, the interview had taken an hour, so he decided to go back to the apartment, get Dee and a snack, then explore the rest of the city, because he had nothing else to do that day.

The next morning, Virgil checked his email. There were two emails, an add thingy that he deleted, and the one he was looking for. He opened it, and it said:

Hey Virgil!  
It’s Joan, the dude with the beanie from yesterday. Talyn says you got the job. They also say that you start next week from noon to 3:00 Pm on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and from 9:00 Am to noon on Tuesdays and Thursdays if that’s cool with you. We have a really flexible schedule because it’s not a big store or whatever, so [insert stuff that Virgil needs to know but we don’t] and just so you know, I work the cash register every day, so you should probably know that I’m also non-binary, so my pronouns are they/them.  
Thank you, see you next week!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, if you have read Dark Secrets (my first version of this), I am pretty much using the same chapters, but editing them to make them better. At some point in the story, I might make a major change though. If you haven’t read Dark Secrets, then good. Don’t do it.

That Friday, Patton came back from his job at the bakery in the afternoon with a plate full of brownies and cookies.

It was Logan’s turn to cook that day, so he made something that more focused on healthiness, rather than tasting good, and he also had a jar of Crofters jelly. Earlier that week, Virgil had been warned by Roman not to touch Logan’s Crofters.

Apparently, Logan is super overprotective of his Crofters, and it is one of his prize possessions.

After dinner, Patton brought the cookies and brownies and sat on the couch, then yelled “MOVIE NIGHT!” Making Virgil jump, then curl in on himself where he had been sitting on the couch, scrolling through his phone.

“Yaaaaaaaaaay!” Roman came running out of his room, throwing himself onto the couch. Logan followed, quietly sitting himself on the other side of Roman.

Patton grabbed the remote and sat between Roman and Virgil. 

“Alright, I guess you don’t know yet.” Patton turned to Virgil, who was putting Deceit on his shoulder. “So, every Friday I bring home goodies from the bakery, and we watch a movie together. We all take turns picking a movie, and if you want, it can be your turn.” Patton said, gesturing at the shelf under the tv stand that held piles of cds.

Virgil went over to them, and chose Black Cauldron, his favorite movie since he moved out of his father’s house.

“Disney?” Roman asked. “I didn’t know you liked Disney!”

“Disney is awesome!” Virgil said.

“Well, I wouldn’t think that someone like you would-“

“Stereotyping much?” Virgil shot at him.

“Sorry, I just thought you would like the movies with darker messages!” Roman said.

“Disney has a lot of dark messages!”

“Like what?” Roman retorted.

“Let’s not argue, and just watch the movie.” Patton interjected.

After watching the movie (and devouring all the sweets) they departed to their own rooms.

Virgil put Dee in his tank and got ready for bed, burying himself deep in the blankets. 

Virgil tried to get to sleep, but again, his darned insomnia got the best of him. 

One of the reasons Virgil is such a small person other than genes, is because of sleep deprivation and lack of eating. He is very skinny, something that is commented on quite often.

At one point in the night, Virgil checked his phone, the time was 12:00. He checked again a while later, it was 2:00 Am. 4:00 Am. 6:00 Am. 8:00 Am. Finally, Virgil just gave up on sleep altogether, and got up to get ready for the day.

Getting out of bed, Deceit watched him, worried. Knowing Deceit, he knew exactly how much Virgil slept that night, and why.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a one-shots as well, so go check it out! At the moment there is only one chapter, but I will be working on it.


	4. Chapter 4

*this chapter is second person Patton, Yay!*

When Virgil came out of his bedroom, he looked like he hadn’t slept a wink. There were bags under his eyes (they were kind of hard to see because of the eye shadow, but they were there) and he was more slumped over than usual.

“Hey, kiddo. You doin okay?” Patton asked, concerned.

“Yeah. I guess.” Virgil sighed.

“Oh, kiddo.” Patton looked at him. “Did you sleep last night?”

“Yes.” Virgil lied. Patton can tell when people lie, and he doesn’t like it. But maybe this time he’ll let it slide.

Virgil curled up in the corner of their couch, and started scrolling through his phone.

Logan suddenly looked up from where he was reading on the couch. “Patton.” The man looked at him.

“Yeah?”

“Do you have any plans for today?” Logan shifted, looking nervous.

“No, why?” 

“Would you like to join my at the cafe down the street?” 

Patton gasped. Did Logan just ask him out? “Of course!”

“Well, then. I suppose it would be ideal for us to get ready for the day.” Logan said.

“Yes, definitely.” Patton agreed, and they both went to their rooms.

Patton decided to wear something different today. He wore a red t-shirt, and a light blue skirt. He also added a small plastic flower behind his ear. The flower had been his Nana’s before she passed away, and she wore it every day for as long as Patton could remember.

At exactly 10:00 (the time the two had planned on leaving) Patton heard three crisp knocks on his door. 

He opened the door, and there was Logan, wearing his usual shirt and tie.

They departed for the cafe, walking side by side.

When they arrived at the cafe, they ordered their stuff, and as Patton pulled out his wallet to buy his hot chocolate and cookie, he looked up, and Logan had beat him to it, paying for all of their food.

“Aw, thanks Lo!” Patton said, grinning.

“It was not a problem.” Logan responded in his usual teachery voice.

Logan sat down at a small table, and Patton sat across from him. 

“It is quite sunny today.” Logan declared, looking into Patton’s icy blue eyes.

“Yes, it is.” Patton looked right back at Logan’s stormy grey ones.

*I switched to second person Logan instead of Patton, because it fit the story properly.*

Logan took a sip of his coffee, and saw something out of the corner of his eye that nearly made him choke.

“Woah, are you okay?” Patton put his hand on Logan’s arm.

“Yes, I-“ *cough* “I thought I saw-“

He looked over at the table across the cafe. And indeed, he had seen correctly.

“Esker?” Logan whispered, then stood up. He walked over to the man he had seen. “Esker?”

“Logan?” Esker looked up in surprise.

“Logan, what’s going on?” Patton came up and stood next to Logan. “Who’s this?”

Logan stares at the man, wide eyed. “Esker, you’re supposed to be dead.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woah, there I go adding a new person!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is super short. I’m sorry about that, I did try (and fail) to make it longer.

*back to second person Patton*

“I know.” The man said. He had Logan’s same stormy grey eyes and chocolate brown hair, but had rainbow dye in the tips of his hair. He also, unlike Logan, had a spattering of freckles on his cheeks and nose, and a darker tan than Logan.

“You know!?!” Logan looked like he was about to blow up. “You KNOW?!?! That is all you say?!?! DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG WE WERE LOOKING FOR YOU!!!! DO YOU KNOW HOW WORRIED WE WERE!!! WERE DID YOU EVEN GO!!! DID YOU EVEN CARE THAT YOUR FAMILY WAS FALLING APART BECAUSE YOU LEFT!!! Did you even care that I-“ Logan stopped yelling, then started sobbing.

All the people in the cafe were staring at them. At the boy with the blue skirt. At the boy in the blue tie, shouting at the rainbow-haired boy in a pink shirt and overalls. All of them staring. Watching. Judging. Patton wished they would all just turn back to what they were doing and ignore the scene.

“Did you even care that you were the best brother ever, and that you just disappeared?” Logan asked Esker through sobs.

“I did care.” Esker said, then reached out and grabbed Logan, pulling him into his lap, giving him a hug. “And I’m sorry. But if you come back to your house when you are supposed to be dead, it raises a lot of questions.”

“Questions.” Patton said slowly. “You left your family, and didn’t come back because of... questions.” Patton looked at him. “That is really selfish of you.” 

Esker blinked and looked Patton over. “I know. I was stupid. I really was. I don’t know how to make it up to you, Lo. I don’t think I can ever make it up to you.”

“Esker.” Logan looked up at his older brother. “Do you know what happened to mama and Father after you left?”

“No. No, I don’t.” 

“Well, how about you come back to our apartment and I’ll tell you. In fact, I will also tell Patton, and I will tell Roman, and I will tell Virgil, too. You all deserve to know.

So much for a great first date.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, after this it gets pretty confusing, and I will try to make it easier to understand, but if you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments!


	6. Chapter 6

*second person Roman. This starts about fifteen minutes after Logan and Patton leave for their “date”*

Roman walked out of his room with his hair and clothes perfected for the day. He had his favorite red t-shirt, and his perfectly groomed hair. Before brushing his hair, Roman had put red glitter on his hands and ran them through his hair, giving it a glittery look.

When he came out, the only person there was emo nightmare, and his slimy snake. “Where is specks and padre?” Roman asked, stretching his arms.

“I just witnessed Logan ask Patton out. It was hilarious. They are now at the cafe down the street.”

“Oh my gosh! The walking dictionary finally got the guts to ask Patton out?”

“Yup. There’s glitter in your hair.”

“I know. I did that on purpose. Soooooooo... what were you saying about Disney having a dark side? Because it totally doesn’t.” Roman said, sitting next to Virgil on the couch.

“That’s a lie. Your a liar. You name a Disney movie, I’ll tell you the dark side.”

“Alright.” Roman thought for a second. “What about... Cinderella.”

“Sit around and do what your evil stepmother says until your price comes to save you.”

“Aw, come on! Her stepmother was abusive, there was nothing she could do!” 

“She was like in her early twenties! She was an adult! She should probably be able to fend for herself!” Virgil retorted. “Not to mention, the prince couldn’t recognize the face of a woman he danced with for hours?”

“It was night time!” Roman said. “He couldn’t see her well!”

“They were inside a ballroom. There were lights. Also, have you ever heard the original story? The stepsisters actually cut off parts of their feet to get the shoe on, so when it got to Cinderella, it was full of blood.”

Roman looked at him in disgust. “Yeah,” Virgil continued. “And their punishment for abusing Cinderella was to dance around in searing hot shoes until they collapsed.”

“That’s horrible!” Roman exclaimed.

Virgil raised his eyebrow and smirked. “Did you just say something against Disney?”

“Okay, alright. You got me. Some of them do have dark sides.”

Just then, Logan came marching through the door, with a guy Roman didn’t know, and Patton right behind.

Logan said there was something he wanted to tell them, and Logan and the guy Roman didn’t know sat on chairs they dragged over from the dining room, and Roman was on the couch with Virgil one one side and Patton on the other.

Logan took a deep breath, and started his story.

“We all lived together. mama, father, Esker and I. We had a pretty good life. Father was a professor at a nearby university, mama was a painter who sold her art. Eventually, Esker went to the university, and I was in high school. In his second year of university, around the middle of the year, Esker disappeared. Mama and father were so sad and panicked. They sent out police and detectives, they searched the whole state and never found him. Esker was labeled as dead, though there was no evidence other than the fact that he was nowhere to be found. Mama and father went crazy. Literally. They started to believe that Esker was there. They would have full on conversations with him even though he wasn’t there. Mama would set out dinner for him, and get genuinely upset when he didn’t eat it. When aunt Carry came over, she saw what was happening, and they had to be taken to a mental hospital. I had to go live with aunt Carry, aunt Seline, and uncle Nathan. Esker, do you know what you did to our family?”

At this point both Logan and his brother were crying. “I’m so sorry, Lo! I didn’t know that would happen!”

“Where did you even go?” Logan asked his brother.

“I- I don’t... remember.” He said. “I remember all up until the day I left, then there is two years of emptiness. Then I remember everything after being in a Starbucks. I’m really sorry, Lo.”

Esker stayed with them for the rest of the day, and through dinner. After dinner, Esker asked Virgil if they could discuss snake care, and they went into his room.


	7. Chapter 7

*back to Virgil*

Virgil and Esker went into Virgil’s room, and closed the door.

“Virgil, I have a question. It’s not really about snakes, and It might startle you, so be warned.” Esker said, then took a deep breath. “Are you a guardian?”

“Yes. How could you tell?” He asked. Aha, That’s where he recognized Esker from. He had seen Esker in the light queen's throne room.

“Well, For one, the bandaid on the back of your neck that’s covering your mark, and I got magical vibes from you. I also think I saw you in the Queen's throne room. Also, the way the snake was acting, it seemed like he was actually listening to our conversations. He is your Rimi, right?”

“Yes.” Virgil took Deceit off his shoulder, holding him in his hands. “This is Deceit.”

Eskers eyes widened. “THE Deceit? Like the half snake face dude?” Esker bent down and looked straight into Deceit’s eyes.

“That would be him. Are you assigned a Rimi?” Virgil asked, setting Deceit on the floor.

“No. What are you doing?” Esker asked Virgil, watching him put the snake on the floor.

“Hey, Dee. How ‘bout you transform so I can show my buddy your gross snake face?”

Deceit transformed, glaring at Virgil, and Esker jumped.

“Wow, Virgil. You don’t have to be ssssso rude about it! It ain’t my fault I’m a sssssnake.” Deceit huffed.

“Woah.” Esker said, staring at Deceit. “You really are half snake.”

“Excusssse me? I am one ssssixteenth ssssnake.” Deceit glared at him.

“Aaaaand we are going back into snake form now!” Virgil declared. “Yup. Come on now.”

Deceit pouted at Virgil, but he transformed without complaint, and let Virgil pick him up and put him back in the terrarium.

“Esker, what element are you?” Virgil asked.

“Fire.” Esker moved his long hair to reveal the red symbol on the back of his neck. “How ‘bout you?”

“Shadow.” Virgil touched the bandaid he had covering the mark on his neck.

“Cool. Here.” Esker handed him his phone number on a sticky note. “Always great to know there is another guardian out there.”

“Thanks.” He put the note on his table, and they both came out of his room.

“What did you talk about?” Patton asked.

“Basic snake care, like feeding and habits and stuff.” Esker told him. Patton raised his eyebrow, but didn’t say anything.

The next morning, Virgil sent Esker a text.

Virge: Hey, it’s Virgil!  
Esker: hello.  
Virge: do you know what the rest of the guardian realm is up to lately? Because nobody ever contacts me. That’s probably because I’m housing one of the most dangerous criminals in the universe, and they don’t want him to know anything.  
Esker: I have no idea. I am unassigned, so I don’t have any sort of job right now, and I’m not important enough to know stuff.  
Virge: okay.  
Esker: I get these vibes from your roommate Patton. He seems super empathetic.  
Virge: yeah, sometimes I think he might be a healer, but that’s kind of absurd. It’s unlikely to meet another guardian in the human realm, let alone two.  
Esker: Yeah. I have to go. TTYL dark man.  
Virgil: haha very funny. You sound like Roman. Bye.  
Esker: see ya.

Virgil started at his phone for a couple minutes, wondering why he was so quick to trust Esker, and contemplating weather he should tell him about the weird memories or not. He eventually decided to tell him in person next time they meet up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bet you didn’t expect that. Ha. Now, seriously, if you are confused about anything, comment it. I respond to comments.


	8. History of the guardians

*who ho! History!*  
Billions of years ago, there were eight kingdoms, each with their own element. Light, Dark, Fire, Water, Air, Earth, and plant. Also, every so often, there would be a child without an element born, and they had the power to heal. The seven of them lived in harmony, and there were trade routs through each kingdom, helping to spread ideas through the realm.

The seven kingdoms also lived along side with the humans, who had no magical powers, and were advancing in technology even though their lifespans were so short, while the seven kingdoms advanced in magic.

After thousands of years of living in harmony, one person from the dark kingdom rose up and rebelled, getting many other people of different elements to join him. This gave the dark kingdom a bad reputation of being evil, especially since they are already pretty dark and anti social.

The rebel group called themselves the Rimi kingdom, after the true love of the rebel king, Rimi.

The Rimi kingdom wanted to take over all the kingdoms, so the light queen separated the humans from the magic beings, for the safety of the humans. In the humans world, the element kingdoms have faded into myth.

The element kingdoms have captured many of the Rimis, and put a spell on them, where they transform into an animal. Some of the elemental people are assigned a Rimi to watch. Many of the people who are assigned Rimi’s live in the human world. 

In the past, before the rebellion, some people with elemental powers would fall in love with humans, and have children. Quite often, there would be a magical spark in their children’s bloodline that wouldn’t surface for many generations. 

Now, when the elemental kingdoms sense a human that has a spark that surfaces, they watch them closely, and on their twentieth birthday, they take them to one of their kingdoms to learn and train with their powers, then are sent back to earth. Sometimes, if the child who has powers is up for adoption, they would get adopted by a magical person and taken back to a kingdom.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: sentimental Deceit. Poor snek boi.

The Fire king gets blasted with a bolt of water right in front of him, he runs to the king, trying to help but failing. The screams are loud in his ears. Someone jumps on him, pinning his arm on his back and breaking it. He turns over, kicking the person in the stomach, they cry out in pain. He dashes away to help a teammate. He gets hit by an unseen force, the world goes foggy...

Virgil’s head snapped up. That was no doubt a memory from the Great War, but that was also no doubt not HIS memory. He wasn’t around during the Great War. Virgil got out of bed, he was soaked in sweat. He took his hoodie off, and changed into something dry. Checking his clock, he found out it was midnight.

Virgil held his hand out in front of him, and felt the warm feeling in his chest. Focusing on that warm feeling, it became warmer and warmer, the heat focused itself only on his heart. Virgil made his hand into a fist, the opened it, palm up. In milliseconds, the heat disappeared from his chest, and in his hand there was a purple shadow ball, revolving an inch above his hand. He held it between his hands, and formed it into a star. Then into a diamond. A heart. a square. He formed it into many different shapes before closing his hand into a fist and squelching the shadow.

Next, Virgil took off his shirt, and let his wings out. The people of dark and light elements had huge feathered wings, the color usually corresponding to their auras. Virgil’s were black with purple highlights. The wings can be folded on the back, but when they are in the human realm, they can make their wings disappear completely.

Virgil flapped his wings, stretching them around. He bent one around his body, and inspected the feathers. The purple highlights were glinting, even though there was no light in the room. 

“Impressive magic.” Virgil jumped and span around. Deceit was laying on his bed, resting his chin on his hands.

“Oh my god. You scared me.” Virgil flopped down on the bed next to him. “And I’m to tired to yell at you.”

“Well, what else am I here for?” Deceit smirked.

“I hate you.” Virgil groaned.

“I know.”

They just kind of stayed there in silence for a few minutes, Virgil flopped on the bed, face in pillow, with Deceit laying next to him.

*switching to second person Deceit cuz it’s necessary*

“Go to your room.” Virgil said, then he fell asleep.

Deceit really wanted to run away, be free, but a tiny voice in the back of his head told him not to. God, why did Virgil have remind him so much of Remy? Did the elders do that on purpose?

Deceit carefully tucked Virgil in, making sure he was comfortable, then he transformed back into a snake and went back to the terrarium to get a full nights rest.

Deceit lay there, waiting for sleep to take hold of him, thinking about all the times Virgil just lay in his bed, awake, for the whole night. At least he was sleeping this time. Insomnia can be rude to Virgil.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, the chapters have been coming out quickly because I’m just reading through the old ones and redoing them, but after this I only have two more chapters, 10 and 11, so after that, it will be much slower, sorry.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here’s this.

Virgil woke up nervous to start the day. Today was the day that he started at Talyn’s Corner Crafts.

At 11:00 Am , He got changed, grabbed his jacket, and ran out to go to work. (Remember, Monday’s he starts work at 12:00)

He didn’t feel to awesome, because he was planning on asking Talyn about a week or two into the job if he can bring Deceit, so he won’t be bringing him for the next week. Even though Deceit was a dangerous criminal, he served as a support animal in public places. Sometimes, Virgil even considers getting Deceit enrolled as a service animal. Of course, he can’t do that, because it might make Deceit feel like he has some sort of power over Virgil. Which he doesn’t.

It took him about half an hour to walk to the craft store, so he just went in to get a feel for the place.

“Hey! You came early!” Joan said from behind the counter.

“Yeah. I thought I should give myself a tour, get a feel for the place.” Virgil looked down at his shoes.

“Good idea. When it’s twelve, just go into the back room and check in with Talyn. Sometimes it’s good to go in a few minutes early, just in case.”

“Kay.” Virgil started walking around the store, memorizing where everything is. It was pretty easy to do, because the store was not very big.

At 11:55-ish, Virgil went into the back room to find Talyn.

“There you are.” Talyn said, seeing Virgil walk in. “If you could take this box and refill the yarn shelves, that would be superb.”

“Alright.” Virgil took the box and went to the yarn section of the store.

After he was done working, at 3:00, Talyn handed Virgil a 20% off coupon because they are an awesome person, so he hung around the store to buy some purple plaid fabric, sewing needles, and lots of white thread. 

When he got home, Virgil took his hoodie off and got to work. He sewed patches of purple fabric in random places, and just put plain white thread on the shoulder. It took way longer than he thought it would, and by the time dinner was there (they just ordered pizza again), he had only put two patches on.

It took him two more days, but Virgil eventually got all the patches on the hoodie.

During the few days he was adding patches to the hoodie, he had to wear his spare one, a grey NASA hoodie. When they saw Virgil wearing his NASA hoodie, everyone was surprised, because Virgil hardly went anywhere without the black hoodie.

“Wow.” Roman said, when he first saw the newly upgraded hoodie. “A purple unicorn barfed on your hoodie.”

“Yeah, well at least a glitter unicorn didn’t barf on my face.” Roman had gold glitter all over his face and in his hair. Again.

“I was doing art!” Roman had a jar filled with glitter in front of him, and a paper that had glue on it.

“Well, so was I.”

“Awww, lookit! Your hoodie is all purple!” Patton walked into the room. “That’s awesome!”

“Yeah? Thanks.” Virgil gave him a half smile.

When it was time for bed, Virgil couldn’t sleep. He kept thinking about his Father and his sisters. He wondered how the eldest sister, Essex was doing in collage, and how little Dot, who was 3 years old, was doing in pre-school. How 12 year old Joey was doing on her soccer team. How the 10 year old twins, Layla and ana were doing in their dreams to become the princesses of the world. How all eight of his sisters were doing. God, he missed them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gosh, I hope I got all the sister ages and stuff right! It’s quite difficult to keep track of nine children. Even if they are just in a story.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this is the last chapter that will be out for a while, because all the next ones will have to be made from scratch. The first eleven were me editing existing chapters that I had made.

*Second person Logan, for a few paragraphs.*

Logan heard a knock on the door, and went to go answer it.

“Yes?” Standing in front of him was a man with sunglasses, a Starbucks coffee, a leather jacket, and a clipboard.

“Uh, I’m here to see Virgil VonVaryant. I’m like, at the right place, right?”

“Yes, of course.” Logan opened the door wider, and went back inside, with the man following. Logan went over to Virgil’s room, and knocked on the door. 

“Virgil, there is someone here to see you.”

“Who?” Virgil opened the door and looked out. “Oh, Remy! Come in.”

The man followed Virgil into his room, and Logan went back to the couch to read his novel. He sat down, thinking about what Remy had said. Then Logan realized something. Remy had said VonVaryant was Virgil’s last name! could Virgil actually be related to Victor VonVaryant? The rich banker who was supposedly richer than the queen of England because of how successful he was in his business? Once that Remy person left, Logan would definitely have ask him.

*oooh, second person Deceit*

Deceit had been chilling around Virgil’s neck, when he heard someone knocked on the door. Virgil got up and opened the door. It was Logan, who had someone behind him.

And of course, that person had to be Remy. Why Remy? Couldn’t it have been a different guardian? Any other guardian? Of course, it had to be the one guardian that Deceit actually knew. The one who had... sentimental value.

“So, you know why I’m here.” Remy said, taking a seat at Virgil’s tiny table. 

“Yup.” Virgil responded. “Yearly Rimi review.”

“Yes.” Remy looked at the terrarium for a little bit. “Nice place. Now, where is the snake himself?”

Apparently Remy hadn’t seen Deceit. Deceit slithered around Virgil’s arm, and Virgil held it out to Remy. “Here.”

Remy stared at Deceit for a few seconds, hesitating, then took Deceit from Virgil. “Will you transform?” He asked, setting the snake on the floor.

Deceit transformed, and sat on the bed next to Virgil.

“Should you be sitting there?” Remy asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Virgil doesssssn’t care.” Deceit hissed, examining his glove.

Virgil punched his arm gently.

The light guardian looked around. “Gosh, it’s dark in here. Do you mind if I turn on the light?”

“Please don’t.” Virgil said.

“Alright.” Remy grabbed his clipboard. “So, how has Deceit been behaving?” He asked Virgil.

“Quite well, actually.” Virgil answered. “He does what I tell him to, and tolerates my roommate, Patton, who absolutely adores him. Pat really likes animals.”

Remy asked a few more questions like that, and it took all Deceit had in him to keep himself from staring at Remy’s beautiful eyes the whole time. 

Holy crap. He has to stop thinking like that. If he really had anything with Remy in the first place, it was gone now. After everything Deceit had done for Remy.

Deceit helped try to take over the world for Remy. The Rimi king had promised to protect Remy forever if Deceit helped him. But as soon as Remy heard that, he left Deceit. Now he denies ever being with him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aww poor baby snek boi!


	12. Pride parade

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m super proud of this chapter. It’s probably the longest one I’ve got. Hope y’all like it!

Remy left the apartment, and Virgil and Deceit came out of the room.

“Hey, Virgil.” Logan got his attention.

“Yeah?” He went and perched on the arm of the couch.

“That man who was visiting you, Remy was it? Anyway, he asked for Virgil VonVaryant. Are you in any way related to Victor VonVaryant?”

Virgil paled. “Er... I... Yes. He’s my father. Just, don’t tell the others please! It makes people see me in a certain way.”

Logan thought for a second. “It illogical for you to not know want Patton and Roman to know who your father is. But alright.” Logan sat in his recliner and opened a book, and Virgil slipped away back into his room.

“LOOOOOOOGAAAAAAN!!” A hurricane of Patton and Roman came bursting through the front door.

The two of them threw ribbons and confetti at him, then headed towards Virgil’s room. Poor kids going to be startled so much by the Roman/Patton tornado. 

In seconds, Logan heard a screech come from Virgil’s room, then Virgil came running out, jumping behind the couch.

Patton and Roman followed him out slowly, looking ashamed.

“Patton, Roman, what is this all about?” Logan asked them.

“Well, it’s June, right?” Patton said.

“Yes.” Logan answered.

“And June is pride month, right?”

“Yes.”

“Well, Roman stopped by the bakery on his way home to show me THIS!” Patton shoved a rainbow colored flyer in Logan’s face.

“A pride parade?”

“Yes, and we are going.” Roman did not ask, he declared. “It’s this weekend. Both me and Pat have stuff to wear, do you guys?”

“No.” Virgil and Logan said simultaneously.

“Well, that’s a problem. We shall go SHOPPING!” Roman declared.

The next day, Logan invited Esker to come with them, and Patton invited his older sibling, Jojo. Roman also decided to invite his dads to come with them.

That weekend, the group was ready they all met up at the parade, covered in their pride stuff. Roman had a big rainbow flag 🏳️🌈 tied like a cape around his shoulders, and had gone to the extent of dying his hair rainbow colored. He had also gotten glittery bracelets of all the rainbow colors, and those were currently covering all of both of his arms. Virgil had a pink hoodie that had the bisexual flag printed on the front, Logan had a white shirt with a small asexual flag on it, while Patton had a shirt that was the Pansexual flag, plus a rainbow hat, and he had added small Pan flags onto the sides. 

Roman’s dads were just as eccentric as their son. They had gotten a pride flag that was big enough to cover both of their shoulders, so they were both huddled together under that. One of Roman’s dads had a rainbow jumpsuit, while the other had his long hair pulled back into a ponytail, using a giant rainbow bow. He also had on a rainbow scarf. 

Esker had, of course, the tips of his hair dyed rainbow still, plus overalls that he had splattered with paint. All the colors he could find were splattered on them. Patton’s sibling, Jojo, had a non binary flag on a short stick that he was waving above his head.

They walked around, showing their pride, chatting with other rainbow covered people. They were at the edge of the crowd while Patton chatted with a transgender man, when Roman was punched.

Yes, you read correctly. Roman was punched. They all turned when Roman said “ow, what the heck!”

The man who punched Roman was standing there with a nasty look on his face.

“Oh, woooooow.” Virgil rolled his eyes at him. “Look, it’s the bad guy who came to ruin our fun. C’mon guys.” He started walking back into the crowd. He seemed calm, but you could tell how uneasy he was, because his fists were clenched, his knuckles where white.

“No. He just punched our son.” Dad #1 said. (I’m gonna number they dad #1 and dad #2. #1 is the one with the jumpsuit)

“Yes, he did.” Dad #2 glared at the man. Now, people started noticing what was going on.

“Stupid gays.” The man said. “You all deserve to burn in hell.” Then he tackled dad #2. All the people at the parade started to fight against him, trying to pull him off of dad #2, while Logan called the cops. Jojo helped get the man off of #2, but Esker brought Roman and Patton away, over to where Virgil was standing, near a mother with her daughter and her son in a wheelchair. 

As soon as Roman saw Virgil, he thought about the panic attack that Virgil was most likely having. He rushed over to comfort him, but the mother beat him to it.

“In four, hold six, out seven.” She was saying to him. Virgil had his hand on her arm, and he was obviously squeezing it hard, because her skin was white under his hand.

Once the lady managed to calm Virgil down, he looked up, saw Roman, and immediately let go of the woman latched on to him.

“Thank you so much!” Roman said to the woman.

“Oh, it’s no problem. I saw what was happening, and had to help. Are you okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine, thank you.” Roman responded.

Then the police showed up. They arrested the man, and somebody must have pointed them in the direction of Roman, because one of them came over. 

“Are you alright?” The officer asked Roman.

“Yes, I’m perfectly fine, thank you. It was just a punch. Is my dad okay?”

“Yes. He is unharmed.”

“Thank you officer.” Roman said. The two sort of tried to do a handshake, but it was awkward because Virgil was still hugging Roman’s arm.

“Yo, Virge, could you maybe let go now?” Roman asked once the officer walked away. 

Virgil’s face went red and he let go of Roman. Jojo, Logan, and Roman’s dads found their way to them, and they chatted about what to do next.

They eventually decided to stay there, despite the assault. Many people left because of it, but there were still a good amount of people left, and the group didn’t want to back down from showing their pride.

“Excuse me?” It was the girl in the wheelchair. Through all the chaos, everyone had forgotten that the trio was still there. 

“Hello.” Esker said to her. She was probably about nine or ten years old. 

“Did you paint that yourself?” She pointed at Esker’s overalls.

“Why yes, I did.”

“Cool. Hey, I have a question.” She was talking to Roman and his dads. “Why are the stripes on the gay flag straight?”

Everybody stared at her in silence while dad #1 inspected the “dads flag” (as he called it).

Then the world collapsed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No, the world didn’t actually collapse. That was my way of describing the shock that everyone was in when they heard her say that. This is an actual thing that has been haunting me and my friends. I kinda owe you an apology, I’m sorry that I didn’t do much character development on the new people. Also, I wanna explain something. The dude who punched Ro was a drunk homophobe who thought it would be a good idea to punch someone and say that at a pride parade. It wasn’t. Also, yes. Roman was adopted. You probably guessed that much, but I don’t know what goes through all of your heads.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IM NOT DEAD!!! I’m sorry! I was being distracted by nothing! Do you know how easy it is to write when you have homework to do? But now I have none, so I do everything but write. I did hit a milestone, though. I know it’s weird, but 13 is my family’s lucky number.

Virgil had feelings for Roman. He had figured that out at the pride parade a few days ago, when he had a panic attack. Or was it before that? Whenever it was, Virgil knew it now.

But he doesn’t have the courage to actually ask Roman out. That would be absurd. Virgil didn’t know what to do. He hadn’t had many relationships in the past. Just three. A girl named Ally, a guy named Ralphonso (don’t ever make fun of his name, he will hunt you down) and a guy named Daniel. And both of them, they had been the ones who made the first move. Virgil didn’t know how to do that.

“‘Morning, Pat.” Virgil said, trudging out of his room. He threw himself face first onto the couch.

“Morning kiddo.”

Virgil sat up and started looking at his phone when Roman burst out of his room yelling “IM GOING TO KILL THE PERSON WHO STOLE CANDY OUT OF MY SECRET PLACE IN MY ROOM!” He was waving his silver painted wooden sword in front of him.

“Wait, you have a secret candy stash?!” Virgil leaped up and bolted into Roman’s bedroom. The candy wasn’t hard to find because it was in an open drawer. He grabbed a handful of candy, pocketed it, and ran back out of the room.

“VIRGIL!!!” Roman chased Virgil into Virgil’s room. They both stopped immediately at what they saw.

“Who the frick is he?” Roman asked, turning towards Virgil.

“He- uh- he’s nobody!” Virgil ran and stood in front of Deceit. “He erm...” then Virgil pushed Roman out of his room and slammed the door in his face. 

“DECEIT WHAT THE HECK!!! YOUR NOT SUPPOSED TO BE TRANSFORMED WITHOUT ME AROUND!!! NIW ROMAN KNOWS ABOUT YOU!!!”

“I- I’m sorry! I- I didn’t mean for him to see me!” I swear!” Deceit stammered. 

“Ugh, I’ll think of something and explain it to him later.” Virgil rubbed his face. He was obviously very tired, because he hadn’t gotten any sleep the night before.

The next day, Virgil came out of his room. He had given Deceit some important instructions to follow.

Virgil was lucky, and the other three were already awake. Roman was doodling, and Patton was reading over Logan’s shoulder, something that was obviously irritating Logan.

When Roman spotted Virgil, he looked at him weirdly, but didn’t say anything.

“Hey guys?” Virgil said. “There’s something I need to tell you that I probably shouldn’t.”

He sat on the couch next to Roman. “Y’know Deceit? The snake? He can kinda... sorta... turn into a human? Well he’s not really human, and the snake is not his true form, it’s who he turned into.”

“How is that scientifically possible?” Logan asked.

“Magic.” Patton answered, and they all looked at him. “Virgil’s a guardian, and Deceit is a Rimi.” Virgil looked at him, eyes wide.

“How did you-“

“Wait, guardian? Rimi? What are those?” Roman cut Virgil off.

“So... [cue an epic montage about the history of the guardians that I explained in a previous chapter] ...and I guessed, but didn’t really know if Virgil was a guardian until now.” Patton explained, with Virgil adding in stuff where he felt necessary.

During the explanation, Roman stared at them in awe, and Logan jotted down notes on a notepad that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.

The two of them asked some questions and stuff, then Virgil left to make a call, and called Esker.

“Hey, Virgil! How’s it going?”

“I... uh... Roman saw Deceit and I had to tell them stuff and we were right about Patton and now they know!” Virgil said.

“Wait, wait. Slow down. We were right about what?”

“Patton being a guardian.”

“Okay, so what did you tell them?”

“Just the basics, history and what guardians are and stuff. No personal info about me, Patton, you, or anyone. And don’t worry, I haven’t even mentioned you at all.”

“Okay. Um... can I come over to tell Logan about me? Like, would that be okay?” Esker asked.

“Yeah, that’s fine.”

When Virgil went out and told them that Esker was coming over, Logan groaned. “Please do not tell me my brother is involved in this!”

“Okay, I won’t. I’ll let him do it.”

“Uuuuuggggghhhh” Logan groaned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anyone was wondering, Patton was the one who took Roman’s candy. Also, this chapter was originally going to be longer, but I wanted to post something. Hopefully the next chapter will be longer, because there will be some life story’s. At least three. I will promise Esker’s story about what happened after he left his family, Virgil’s life story, and Patton’s life story. I may throw in Roman’s story just for the fun of it, but many not yet.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a super long chapter! I finally decided to do something besides fluff.

They sat in the living room, much like how they did when they first met Esker.

“Esker, please do not tell me you are involved in this.” Logan said.

“I’m sorry, Logan. It ain’t my fault!”

“Ain’t is not a word.”

“Alright.” Patton interjected. “Sooo, we’re kinda all here for some explaining, so let’s do just that! Who wants to go first?”

“I will.” Esker said.

“I went missing because While I was walking through the campus, a man cane up to me. And this guy was hot, too. He told me about the guardians, and told me I was one. He said that some humans have some kind of spark in their bloodline from a guardian ancestor, so a few of the family members might develop powers in their first 20 years of life. I didn’t believe him, so he showed me. We went into an empty cafe, and he created a fire in his hand. After that, he said he needed to take me to a place where someone will show me how to use my powers. I agreed, and didn’t think about contacting my family for a while, I was so overwhelmed by all the magic stuff. I’m sorry, Logan. The man, who’s name was Ryan, introduced me to a dude who was going to train me. It took about two years, but after training I got to choose if I wanted to stay there or come back here, and whatever I chose I would be able to change my mind. I chose to come back here, and I got an apartment and then you guys found me. The end.”

“Wow.” Roman was obviously in awe.

“Why didn’t you contact us when you came back?” Logan asked his brother.

“I tried. I couldn’t contact Mama or Father, and you must have gotten a new number. I had to get a new phone too, because I may or may not have burnt it up during my training, and you know how aunt Carry doesn’t pick up calls from unknown numbers.” Esker held up his phone that had several burn marks on the case.

“Indeed. I did have to get a new phone and number.” Logan said.

“My turn!” Patton said. “My story isn’t as crazy as you, though. I lived a pretty normal life as a healer for the plant element. I loved playing with Jojo and my sister Emily. They would grow tiny plants for me. My family had a small house in the town, and we weren’t rich and we weren’t poor. We had a lovely garden, too! My Mom loved sitting outside and working on our garden. I became apprentice to our town healer at age 10, and I helped heal people. When I turned 16, I wanted to travel the kingdoms and even go to the human world, but I couldn’t because of my role as a healer. Luckily, they found another healer who became the apprentice, so me, her, and our town healer worked together for a year, and then I got permission to travel until I turn 35, then I have to go back and settle down to work with Kam, the other healer. Right now she’s working alone because our trainer retired a couple years ago.” Patton finished.

“Aw, cool!” Esker said. “Your a healer?”

“Uh, Yeah. I just said that.”

“Okay.” Roman said. “Virgil, you’re turn!”

“I actually have to go to work now. Bye.” He got up and left, leaving the other four in the living room.

“Ugh, come on.” Roman said. “Hopefully he will tell us later. Esker, do you wanna stick around?”

“Sure.”

In the next few hours, Esker watched the live action version of Beauty and the Beast, and had a long discussion with Logan about quantum physics. 

Virgil finished up at the craft store, and deliberately walked home super slowly. He did not want to share his life story. At all. But it was the right thing to do. They deserve to know who he is. None of them except Logan even know his last name (Roman and Patton think it’s Marsh).

When he got home, everybody was chilling, and the only person sitting properly was Logan. He was in his armchair, Roman was laying on the couch sort of, but with his head on the floor and his feet on the back of the chair. He was also asleep. Esker was sitting on the dining room table and Patton was on the floor near Logan’s chair.

“Uh... what is Roman doing?” Virgil asked, taking his shoes off and tossing them in his room.

“I believe he is sleeping in a manner that will hurt his back later today.” Logan responded.

Virgil walked over, grabbed Roman’s feet, and flipped him.

“Ow! VIRGIL!” Roman stood up, rubbing his back.

“Hey Virgil!” Patton exclaimed. “Did you have a good time at the craft store?”

“It was okay. Pretty uneventful.” 

“Okay. Well, now it’s your turn to tell us your story!”

“Fine.” Virgil went over and sat on the couch, and Esker came over from the kitchen.

“So... the first thing I have to say is that Marsh isn’t actually my last name. It’s VonVaryant.”

“Oh, like that rich dude?” Roman asked.

“Yeah. Exactly. Victor VonVaryant is my father. I have 8 sisters, Essex, Avery, Evelyn, Joey, Layla, Sara-Lee, and Dot.” The others made sounds of amazement at this. “My mother passed away from child birth when she was having Sara-Lee, and I went mute during that time. My father remarried, and I hated the lady, and she hated me. She had Dot, and she left two months after Dot was born. Apparently she was only with my father for his money, and so many kids got too much to handle, even with the older kids and my father there to help out. When I was seventeen, I came out to my father, and he kicked me out of the house. That’s when I decided to use the name Marsh instead of VonVaryant. Now the only family member I keep contact with is Essex, and my father doesn’t know about it. I am still able to contact my father if necessary, though. After a few days of me living out on the streets, a person came and took me off to train in the element kingdoms. Apparently they were planning to come get me when I turned 20, like they did for Esker, but when I got kicked out they came earlier. I lived in the kingdoms for a few years after training, I only came back here two years ago. I earned the Dark Kings trust and gained responsibility for Deceit and now I’m here.” Virgil sighed, leaning back on the couch.

“Awww, Virgil! I didn’t know you got kicked out!” Patton came over and hugged him, despite knowing Virgil really doesn’t like contact.

Roman was just looking at Virgil. “Your Victor VonVaryant’s son.”

“Yeah.” Virgil responded.

“So that means you used to live in California.”

“Yes.”

“Did you go to school at Spring High?”

“Yeah. That stuffy rich kid school was annoying.”

“Alright. Do you remember Roman from theater club?”

“Yeah I remember you. You started school halfway into ninth grade. You were the lead actor who everybody loved. You dated Eric in tenth grade. You had a red jacket with pink stripes that was an absolute eyesore that you always wore around your waste.” 

Roman looked taken aback. “That is extremely stalkerish.”

“Eh. I survived school by sitting in corners and people watching.”

“Okay... I remember you were mute and you were in charge of costume design and tech stuff for theater club.”

“Yeah. That’s me.”

“Cool! You two knew each other before living here!” Patton said, clapping his hands.

“I have a question about this magic thing.” Logan said, closing the journal he had been taking notes about what the three said about magic. “How do we know it exists? How do we know you are telling the truth?”

“I for one believe them.” Roman said. “I totally saw Deceit do a weird transforming thing yesterday.”

“I still need proof.”

“Well, we could show you.” Esker said. He held out his hand and lit a small flame.

“Woah.” Roman said, amazed.

Virgil ran to grab Deceit. “Hey, Deceit. Do you mind transforming for me?” Deceit hissed at him. “Transform now, Deceit. That’s an order.” Deceit transformed, startling both Logan and Roman.

“Hah, scared you.” Deceit smirked at the two.

“Shut up.” Roman said, scowling at him.

“I can do this.” Virgil held his hands out, creating a shadow ball, and manipulating it to make different shapes. “Also, I have wings.”

“Wings?” Logan asked. “May we see them?”

“Sure, just a sec.” Virgil went into his room and put on one of his tank tops that had a very low back. He returned to the living room and showed them his wings.

“And they just disappear like there are no wings at all!” Logan marveled.

“Yeah, it’s crazy. In the kingdoms, the Light and Dark guardians usually keep their wings out because it’s more comfortable, but the disappearing thing is helpful when we’re in the human realm.” Virgil stretched his wings out to their full length.

“That’s so cool!” Roman said, reaching out to feel Virgil’s wing. Virgil growled at him and pulled his wing back.

“And I can heal people!” Patton said. “Does anybody have any injuries?”

“Uh... I have a tiny bruise on my ankle.” Roman said, showing Patton.

“Okay.” Logan leaned in to see what Patton was about to do. Patton placed two fingers on Roman’s bruise, and in seconds it was gone.

“Woah! Thanks Pat!” Roman felt his ankle. 

Just then, someone knocked on the door. Virgil quickly hid his wings and Deceit transformed back into a snake.

Patton stood up and opened the door. “Hello!”

“Hey. I’m Remy.” Remy shook Patton’s hand.

“I’m Patton! Nice to meet you!”

Remy saw Virgil over Patton’s shoulder. “Ah, there you are Virgil!”

“Hey Remy.”

Patton stepped aside and let Remy into the house, closing the door behind him.

“So, what brings you back here so soon?” Virgil asked.

“My Mother would like to speak with the five of you.”

“If it’s about the whole telling Roman and Logan about the magic, legally Logan’s allowed to know because he’s Eskers brother, and Roman was bound to find out soon.”

“No, it’s not about that. I don’t know what it is, but it’s probably not that. She asked for all five of you though. And Deceit. Bring Deceit too.”

“Uh, who is this?” Roman asked.

“Prince Remy, son of Queen Glow, not-the-heir to the throne because I have an older brother, royal messenger for the Light kingdom at your service.” He bowed.

“Your a prince?! My last name is Prince.” Roman exclaimed, bowing back. “So I am a prince but I’m not royalty.” Remy giggled when he said that.

Patton invited Remy to dinner, and he accepted, and Deceit transformed into his true form because he wanted pizza, and the seven of them squeezed around the table for dinner.


	15. Romance

Roman remembered the way his heart raced when Virgil grabbed his arm at the parade, and it wasn’t because of the panic going on around them. Roman catches himself when he stares at Virgil. Roman notices the little things that make Virgil unique. The way he slumps in his chair. The way he pulls his hood up over his head. The  
Way he gets fidgety when people talk to him.

Roman notices those deep dark brown eyes, peering out from under his jet black hair. Roman sees the small freckle on Virgil’s pale wrist. Roman observes the way Virgil’s eyeshadow is applied carefully under his eyes.

Roman is in love, and he needs to figure out the right way to tell Virgil.

Roman is sitting in his room, brainstorming, when a lightbulb turns on over his head. Literally.

“Kiddo, it’s not healthy to write in the dark.” Patton has come in. Roman hadn’t heard the door open.

“Thanks Pat.”

“What’s bugging you kiddo?” Patton came over to where Roman was seated at his desk.

Roman looked at Patton. Should he tell him? Roman has known Patton for years. The two of them had gotten the idea to rent this apartment. He could trust Patton.

“I like Virgil and I don’t know how to tell him.”

“Oh. You could ask him to go get coffee with you, and take it slow. Or you could go on a walk together.” Patton patted Roman’s shoulder.

“I wanted to do some sort of grand gesture, though.”

“You can do it how you like, but I think you should try to think of what Virgil would want. I have noticed he prefers quiet spaces and places he can blend in with the crowd.”

“Oh, you’re right!” Roman stood up. “I haven’t been thinking about that!”

The two boys left Roman’s bedroom, and Patton went to his room, while Roman went to find Virgil.

“Hey, Virge.” Roman walked up to where Virgil was sitting on the floor. “Whatcha doin down there, buddy?” He looked down at the dark creature.

“I am reading Different, by ImNotOkay_IPromise. It really good.” He responded, looking up at Roman.

“Cool. I was wondering if you wanted to go on a walk or get coffee with me before I have to go to work. You opened the craft shop today, right?”

“I... uh... I would....”

“It’s fine if you don’t want to come.”

“NO! I mean, no.”

“No? You’re not coming?”

“No, no as in I don’t not want to come.” Virgil said.

“What?” Roman was confused.

“I’m coming.” Virgil simplified it.

“Great. Do you wanna go now, or...”

“Yes!” Virgil exclaimed. “We should go now.”

The two of them left the apartment and headed towards the caffe (it happened to be the same one Patton and Logan found Esker and failed their first date).

They got two coffees and four chocolate chip cookies (Roman payed) and took a seat (which coincidentally was at the same table Logan and Patton had sat at).

Roman’s name was called to go get the coffee, and he hurried over to grab them.

They sat at the table, chatting about random stuff, drinking their coffee. After a while, Roman realized that Virgil’s hand had slipped into his own. 

“Virgil.” Roman looked at the shorter man. “I really like you.” He blushed super hard.

“I think you’re pretty cool too.” Virgil said, his face equals red, if not redder.

“Let’s walk.” Roman offered.

“Okay.” The two stood up, still holding hands.

They walked down to the city park and sat on a bench, facing towards the small pond in the middle. Virgil leaned on Roman, and they sat in peace. Eventually, Virgil actually fell asleep, his chest rising and falling with each breath. Roman could feel Virgil’s heartbeat in his neck, beating peacefully.

After a while Roman realized he had to go to work. He’d hate to wake Virgil up, but he had to.

“Virgil, wake up dearest.” He gently shook Virgil’s shoulder.

“Nooooo” Virgil lazily batted Roman’s hand away. “I don’t waaaaant tooooo.”

“You have to. I’m going to be late for work. You can come and sleep in the staff room if you want.”

“Nooooooo.”

After a bit more coaxing, Roman got Virgil to get up off the bench. They walked down the street a ways, then hailed a taxi. 

On the drive to the restaurant Roman worked at, Virgil almost fell asleep again, but Roman kept him awake by repeatedly poking him in the shoulder very annoyingly.

When they got to the restaurant, Roman payed the taxi driver and they went inside.

When they walked in, Roman was showered by a chorus of greetings.

Roman went into the back room to get his apron on and stuff, and Virgil went and sat at the tiny bar area.

“Hello!” The barista said. “Would you like anything?”

“Nah, I’m just chilling for a while.”

“Great. It’s always good to have company in this remote corner of the restaurant. You look very proud of yourself.”

“I am. I just went on a date and the world didn’t collapse. I think it went well.” Virgil said.

“Oooh, who’s the lucky person?” She asked while sorting through some stuff under the counter.

“Roman. He works here, actually.”

“Oh my goodness! Who asked who out?” She looked eager to know.

“He asked me.”

“Now you don’t go giving Rosie stuff to gossip about.” Roman said to Virgil, walking past them to seat a family.

“Aw, you’re no fun!” Rosie called after him. “Anyway.” She turned back to Virgil. “He won’t tell us anything about his new roommate. Do you know who he is?”

“That would be yours truly.” Virgil gestured at himself.

“Oooh!” Rosie squealed. “How’s-“ one of the other employees called out to her. “I’ll be right back.”

A man came over and sat on the stool next to Virgil’s. “Hey.” He said.

“Uh... hi?” Virgil fidgeted in his seat. New people make him uncomfortable, but he was getting especially weird vibes from this guy.

“How you doin?” The man looked at Virgil out of the side of his eye.

“I’m alright, I guess.” Virgil scooted to the far side of his stool.

“Heh. You guess. Well, you won’t be for long.” Before he knew what was happening, the man had pulled out a knife and cut Virgil’s arm. Virgil’s fight of flight reflexes kicked in, and he did a backflip over the strangers head, and raced for the exit. 

The man swung his fist at him, but Virgil was faster. He bent backwards limbo style, and dodged the hit. He did another flip thingy that probably has an official name that I don’t know, where after dodging the hit, he flipped backwards and his hands hit the ground and he pushed himself towards the man, feet first, and hit him hard in the stomach. Then, there was a hard impact on the back on his head and he blacked out.

When Virgil woke up, Roman and a ton of people he didn’t know were crowded around him. 

“He’s awake!” One person said. “Give him space, let him breathe!” Said another.

There was a bandage on his arm, and his head was throbbing. “Are you alright son?” A man who looked like a doctor asked. 

Virgil groaned in response.

The doctor helped Virgil sit up. He had apparently been laying on a table near the wall, and was now sitting on the table, with his back up against the wall.

“Does your head still ache?” The doctor asked.

“Yeah. I feel like I’ve been hit five times in the back of the head by a six foot tall football player who works out at the gym everyday. And trust me, I know how that feels.” Virgil rubbed his face.

“Is that why you’re so weird?” Roman asked, hoping up into the table and grabbing Virgil’s hand.

“Those were some impressive moves you did there. We got good footage of it on the security camera. Apparently he tried to stab you in the side but slipped and got your arm instead.” The owner of the restaurant said.

“What happened to him?” Virgil asked, looking around.

“Someone saw him try to stab you and called the police immediately. That man had had a bit too much to drink at the bar across the street, and when they said he had enough, he came over here to get more to drink. We can’t figure out why he attacked you. We checked the cameras, and they also pick up sound, and still didn’t find any reason.”

Virgil and Roman went home early, even though Roman’s shift wasn’t over, because his boss said he could go early. They later got a call and apparently the guy wasn’t right in the head. Nothing more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why did I do that? That last part was so unnecessary. Causing drama for no reason. I have to stop that.


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fluffy craft store stuff. And Roman lost his job.

When Remy was over for dinner, they all discussed the plan for going to see the Queen of the light kingdom.

They were all going to call their work and tell them that they would be gone for two weeks. On Saturday, Remy would come back over with something that would help them get Roman and Logan into the realm. They will appear in the plant kingdom, because that’s where the portal to get in and out of the human realm was. Then they would have to travel through the Dark and Earth kingdoms to get to the light kingdom. They mapped out a route, and it went through Patton’s home town, so he could visit his family. The trip from the plant kingdom to the light kingdom would take five days on foot. If it were just Remy and Virgil, they could have made the trip in less than a day, because they have wings. But they have to bring Esker, Patton, Roman, and Logan. (Deceit has to stay a snake while he’s in the elemental realm, so either way, he would be carried).

Virgil had just finished telling Joan about not being there for two weeks, and reassuring him that he would be there for the rest of this week. 

Virgil had to put the glitter back on the shelves. He hated that job. The glitter absolutely burned his eyes out. 

Virgil had just finished putting the yellow glitter back on the shelf and started to put up the green glitter, when a little kid (probably about six or seven) ran past a paper stand, knocking it over, sending all the brightly colored paper flying all over the floor.

The kid immediately stopped and started picking up the papers. He was just grabbing different papers, making a messy stack of random colors, but at least he was trying.

Virgil set the box down and came over to the kid.

“I’m sorry.” The kid said, looking at Virgil.

“Hey, it’s okay. We can pick up the papers together. I’m Virgil, what’s your name?” Virgil crouched down to eye level with the kid.

“I’m Joseph.” He smiled at Virgil.

Virgil righted the display shelf thingy, and showed Joseph how to put each paper into the slot that matched the color. It took a while, but the two eventually got all the papers picked up. 

Just then, Joseph’s mom came hurrying over. Virgil knew she was his mom, because they were exactly identical, except for their eyes. The mom had brown eyes, but the kid’s were blue.

This mom was one of those moms who wore a ton of makeup, and dresses everywhere. She looked strict. She also had her hair pulled back in a tight bun. She didn’t look very motherly.

“Is he bothering you? Joseph, don’t bother the store employee. You know what happens when you bother people.” Joseph winced. The mother glared at her son. Virgil knew that glare. He saw it on his father constantly.

“No, no! He was awesome! You have one awesome kid here. He helped me clean up some papers that had been knocked onto the floor!” Virgil made sure not to mention exactly who had made the mess in the first place.

“Oh. Okay, then. Joseph, come on. We need to go pay for our things.” The two walked off.

A few minutes later, when Virgil was about halfway done with the purple glitter, Virgil heard the door open, and Joan say the usual “hello, welcome to Talyn’s Corner Crafts! Do you need help finding anything today?” And thought nothing of it, until he heard what came next.

“I am looking for a certain dark night, maybe you could point me in the right direction?”

Joan laughed and said “if you mean Virgil, he’s hiding near the glitter.”

Roman hurried over to Virgil. “Your prince has come!” He said dramatically.

“What do you want, Roman?” Virgil continued putting the glitter away, not even looking at him.

“When I told my boss I would be gone for a couple weeks, he suggested that I take the rest of this week off to, and also not come back after we’re done vacationing, so I came here to help you.” Roman grande a glitter bottle from Virgil and put it on the shelf.

“You got yourself fired?!? Roman! What did you do?!?!” Virgil screeched at his roommate.

“I swear I was being good the whole time!” Roman put another glitter bottle on the shelf.

“Ugh, whatever.” Virgil sighed. “C’mere.” He quickly but up the last three bottles of glitter with one hand, and headed to the counter with Roman close behind.

“Hey Joan, Roman got fired from his job, can you give him stuff to do that happens to be on the other side of the store then where I have to do my stuff so he stops bugging me?”

“What were you fired for?” Joan asked Roman.

“Maybe I was too fidgety during meetings and maybe I kept forgetting silverware for our customers, and maybe I didn’t want to wear the stupid panda costume, and maybe I kept putting glitter in my hair even though my boss hated it, and maybe I refused to serve at my ex-boyfriends table because he is a jerk and was hanging out with all of his jerky friends, abut Mindy was willing to serve them for me!”

“Oh, man. Sounds like a strict boss. In my opinion, none of those reasons sound like valid reasons to fire you. Does he dislike you on a personal level, like outside of business?”

“Well... he is also my ex-boyfriend, who is currently together with the other ex-boyfriend that was at the restaurant.” Roman sighed. “The reason I’m ex-boyfriends with the first guy is because I caught him cheating on me with my ex-boyfriend who is also now my ex-boss.”

“Oh, rough! Sorry, dude.” Joan said. “Anyway, can you put those paints back into rainbow order and take the flyers for things that have already expired off the cork board?” Joan pointed at the things.

“Yeah, sure.” Roman headed over to the paint to organize them, and Virgil continued his routine, skipping the paint organizing, because Roman had done that.

After Virgil was done at work, he winked at Joan, and slipped out of the shop, leaving an unknowing Roman -who was humming “Your Welcome” from Moana- in the store. He ran down the street to the bakery Patton worked at, bought some cookies that were half off because the owner gave him a “family discount” because even though Virgil and Patton aren’t related, the owner does that for Virgil, Roman, and Logan. 

Virgil sprinted back over to the craft shop, hoping Roman hadn’t noticed that Virgil had left. Virgil got back to the craft store, and quietly handed Joan a cookie. He walked over to Roman, and Roman yawned. Virgil put a cookie in his mouth.

“Virgil!” Roman exclaimed, taking the cookie out of his mouth. “I don’t know weather to be mad at you or not right now.”

“It’s time to leave.” Virgil told him. “Just lemme give Talyn a cookie.”

When Virgil came back from the back room, he found Joan trying to hire Roman.

“You’re almost as good a worker as Virgil. If you let me hire you, I will let you have a free bottle of glitter.” That sold Roman.

Roman accepted, and promised to start work right after they came back from their “vacation”.

They both left with high spirits, two cookies, and a bottle of purple glitter. Roman also had a mischievous grin on his face, but that was the least of Virgil’s worries. They were, after all, going on a random quest back to the elemental realm in three days.He


	17. Arrival

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I don’t know if you remember in the first chapter when I made stupid puns about their sexuality’s, and Roman was gay, Virgil was bi, Patton was pan, and Logan was ace? Well, I realized a problem, so I fixed it. Logan is gay and ace. See, fixed it. Also, for the fun of it, Patton is now pansexual and polyamorous. That’s all folks.

Remy had just come over to their apartment, and Esker had goten there an hour earlier. They each had a few things packed, but didn’t need too much, for the queen of the leaf kingdom agreed to supply them with most of their materials. 

Remy had brought with him a crystal, pulsing with pink light, hung on a chain around his neck.

They were all crowded in a small circle, with their backpacks on, and Deceit wrapped around Virgil’s arm. 

Remy held out the crystal, they all touched it, and Remy said some magical sounding words.

They were all teleported into a huge room. Remy, Patton, Esker and Virgil remained standing up for the transition, perfectly used to teleporting into the human realm and back, but one can’t say the same for Logan and Roman.

“I think I’m going to be sick!” Roman exclaimed, getting up and holding his stomach.

Logan was also on the ground, not looking sick, but his glasses and tie were slightly askew. He gracefully stood up, and adjusted his tie and glasses. “That was... unpleasant to say the least.”

Remy chuckled, and Patton used his magic to make Roman and Logan feel better, of course, Logan protested, saying he wasn’t feeling sick, but the other four knew that teleporting for the first time always makes you queasy.

“Ah, Remy. I see you have returned. And you brought some friends!” They heard a soft female voice from the other side of the room.

They all turned and saw a woman sitting on a throne. She was wearing a green dress that had pink and purple flowers on the bottom. She was wearing a golden crown that looked like vines, and her hair was brown with green streaks, and she had a bid red flower tucked behind her ear.

Remy bowed. “Yes, these are the people Queen Glow requested I bring to her kingdom.”

Virgil, Esker and Patton bowed as well, and Logan and Roman caught on to do the same.

“You may rise.” She said, smirking. “And who might you all be?”

They stood upright, and introduced themselves.

“I am Virgil VonVaryant, Dark element.”

“I’m Patton Lark, healer of the plant kingdom!”

“I am Esker Berry, fire element.”

“I am Roman Prince, from the human realm.”

“And I am Logan Berry, and I am from the human realm as well.”

“Oh? Humans?” She seemed surprised.

“Yes, my mother requested these two.” Remy shrugged. “I believe it’s just because they are Patton and Virgil’s roommates, and also Logan is Esker’s brother. And also for the plot of the story to work.”

“What story?” They all asked in unison.

Remy chuckled nervously. “nothing...”

“Okay, then. Patton Lark, you are the healer who was originally supposed to work with Kamaren Thorn, correct?” Queen Rose asked.

“Yes, my Queen.”

“Good, good. I have had extra clothes, food, a wagon, and four horses prepared for your use.”

Various thank you’s chorused from the group, and they started towards the horse stables where the horses and stuff were being kept.

When they got there, the person who had been showing them where to go, and the stablehand introduced them to the horses, and helped hook two of them up to the wagon.

Misty was a brown mare with white dots on her face, Sunstorm was a tall white stallion, Dusk was a black mare who had a white star on her forehead, and Pila was a small pinto mare.

Dusk and Misty were going to pull the cart, and Sunstorm and Misty could be ridden, tied to the back of the wagon, or just follow along next to the cart because of how well behaved the horses are. 

“Hey Logan, Roman. Do either of you know how to ride a horse?” Patton asked, hopping up onto Pila.

“I do!” Roman said with glee. “I love horses!”

“Great. You don’t need to ride right now, but you may need to later.”

As they were sorting out all the stuff, Virgil and Remy took off their shirts, revealing their undershirts that let them use their wings. It was such a nice day out, so they would be fine with just the undershirts, but they saw that Queen Rose had put some clothes that allow them to use their wings. 

Remy and Virgil let their wings out, then came over to where the horses were.

Remy’s wings were pure white. unlike the other Light or Dark element people’s wings that are either Black or white with a tint of whatever color best matches their aura, the royal family’s wings were either pure white (light) or pure black (dark).

Remy and Virgil hopped into the wagon. Virgil sat in the back and made himself comfortable on the floor, sitting on a pile of random blankets and sleeping bags with his wings wrapped around himself, while Remy sat where he would be able to control the horses when they are ready to go. Patton was sitting on Pila, Logan and Esker were sitting on a bench seat thingy behind Remy, and Roman was climbing a tree (don’t ask).

“Roman, we’re leaving without you!” Remy called, starting the cart.

“Hey, WAIT!!!” Roman scrambled down the trunk of the tree and hopped into the cart. He sat himself near Virgil, sitting on the cart with his legs hanging off the back.

Patton on Pila rose behind them and chatted with Roman, and Dusk followed along right next to the cart.

They went through the town, earning stared from the villagers, and they went into the small wooded area that separated each town. They went down the path, stopping occasionally to use the bathroom in the bushes or to give the horses a drink from a nearby creek. They passed through two more towns, earning more stares, because 1) they were in a royal wagon 2) Esker had rainbow hair and 3) it was super obvious that both Remy and Virgil were not plant element because of their wings.

When they were riding through one of the towns, Patton got off of Pila and let her ride next to them because he needed to explain something to the others. His family was what they call a mixed family, meaning his parents are different elements. “My mother is plant element and my father is earth. Both Jojo and Emily are plant elements, but the healer who trained my said that he could tell that if I hadn’t turned out a healer, I would have been an earth element. Also, when two different elements have kids, its a 50% chance that their kid ends up a healer, rather than the usual 10% chance of a normal family. If the healer from the mixed family has kids, there is a 75% chance of that kid being a healer if the other parent is the same element as one of the healer’s parents. If the person is a different element, it’s a 90% chance of their kid being a healer, and if it were two healers having kids, no mater their parents elements, it’s a 100% chance of their kids being healers. There’s a family in the water kingdom where the family is pure healers, going back three generations.”

“Wow, you obviously have done some research on this subject!” Logan raises his eyebrows at Patton.

“Yeah. I went through a phase when I was twelve where the only thing I did in my spare time was research about healers. I’m writing a book of random facts about healers.” He responded. 

COMMERCIAL BREAK!  
I am going to start the first chapter of Pattons book later today. It will be called “Short stories by Not an Angel's healers” and y’all can find it by clicking my user name above, or typing it in up there in the search bar! I also advise going and checking out my one shots, because so far, only a few people have seen that. Also, I am editing this after like 25 chapters of this work, so I can warn you about this; the work mentioned above may have a few spoilers so be warned. Now, back to your regularly scheduled program!

“That’s impressive!” Esker said, patting Patton on the back.

“Thanks!” He grinned. “Do you two want to see what all the symbols look like, and what we call the wheel of opposites?

“Sure.” Roman said.

Patton dug through his backpack and pulled out a paper with different symbols on a circle. At the top was a yellow star, and directly opposite the circle was a purple diamond. To the left of the star was a blue wave drawing, and opposite was a red flame. Between the wave and diamond was a brown circle, and opposite that was a light blue symbol that looked like a representation of wind. In the middle of the circle was a green leaf. 

“At the top is light, it’s opposite is dark. Then there’s water, it’s opposite it fire, then there’s earth, who’s opposite is air. Plant is sort of a neutral element. We don’t have an opposite, but we’re known to get along best with the earth kingdom.”

After a while, they arrived in Patton’s town. When they got there, Patton and Pila took the lead, taking them to the public horse stable where visitors could keep horses and wagons. It was a small little town where everyone knew everyone, so none of the townsfolk were worried about anything getting stolen, and neither was Patton.

“C’mon guys, my house is this way! The people who work at these stables will feed and water the horses, and we can come back for our things later.”

Remy grabbed the money pouch (just in case) and they all went into the town on foot. They passed a bakery that Roman wanted to go to, and Logan made a mental note to visit a library he saw.

Soon, they got to a small adobe house with vines and overgrown garden, but it was in a pretty, lived in way, not a old abandoned overgrown way. Patton walked up the path, and knocked on the front door. Their door was a nice wooden door, with the plant and earth element symbols painted on it.

The door opened, revealing a woman with dirty blond hair pulled back into a loose ponytail. “Yes?”

Then she saw Patton. “PATTON BABY!! Your home!!!” She engulfed him in a big hug. “I’ve been waiting all morning!”

“Ma! We have to come here from the palace, of course it took a while!”

“Aww sweetie!” She kissed her son’s cheek. “HONEY, PATTY IS HOME!”

“MA! Stop it!” Patton went inside, the others following him. Inside the house was very bright, having windows everywhere. There were a few house plants in pots that looked like they were painted by children, and upon closer observation, they indeed had Patton’s, Jojo, and Emily’s signatures on the bottom. There was a simple brown couch and coffee table, and a lamp. There were some family photos along the walls, and a painting of a sunset.

A chubby, dark skinned man entered the room with a big grin on his face. “Hey, son! How ya doin’?”

“I’m good, Pa. How are you guys doing? Also, where’s Emily?”

“Life is fun. A bit bland without you and Jojo around, but we’re getting along fine. Emily’s our with her friends and won’t be back until after dinner.”

“Now, introduce me to your friends.” His mother added, waving at the five boys scattered around the room, standing, sitting on the couch, table, and floor.

“Uh, that’s Prince Remy, he’s one of the royal messengers for Queen Glow, that’s Virgil VonVaryant, Dark element, that’s Esker Berry, Fire Element, and those two are Logan Berry and Roman Prince, they are human.”

“Oh, isn’t that lovely!” 

“Uh, can you two help us carry some stuff back here, then I’m going to show them all around the town if it’s okay with you.” Patton asked his parents.

“Yes we will help you, and you are all adults and can go wherever you want.” Patton’s Ma smiled at him. They all went back to the horse stables and got sleeping bags, clothes, and their backpacks out of the wagon, and set off back to the little house.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nice, long chapter.


	18. Chapter 18

After they had dropped their stuff off at the house, the group started off to go explore the town. They went over to the bakery, which was conveniently located next to the library, so Logan and Virgil went into the library, while Patton, Roman, Esker, and Remy went to the bakery.

While Roman stared with awe at all the interesting sweets, Patton started a conversation with one of the people in line. Remy And Esker has no interest in the sweets (are they feeling okay?) so they went and sat at an empty table and reviewed their travel plan.

Once Roman and Patton had made their decisions and bought their pastry’s, they went to join Esker and Remy.

About five minutes later, a five year old came up to them. “‘Scuse me,” he said to Remy. “Can I touch your wing?”

“Eban, don’t be rude!” A girl about Patton’s age came up behind him.

“It’s fine.” Remy giggled, stretching his wing out for the kid. “I get it a lot from kids when going through other kingdoms.”

“Thank you. He’s so curious sometimes.” The girl said. Two other girls came up behind her, smiling at the little kid.

Then the tallest one looked up at the strange group. “Patton?”

“Hey, Em!” Patton stood up and hugged his sister. “We’re exploring the town before dinner. I was hoping to see you somewhere!” His older sister looked more like her father than her mother, unlike Patton and Jojo. 

“How you been?”

“Great! My roommates are awesome!” Patton said with glee.

“That’s wonderful!” She looked at the group again. “Isn’t there supposed to be six of you guys?”

“Yeah.” Remy answered. “Logan and Virgil are in the library.”

“Okay. Hope to meet them at diner!”

They parted ways, and the four boys headed off to the library.

It took a little searching, but they eventually found Logan and Virgil in the most secluded corner of the library, where Virgil was chilling and listening to music, while Logan read a book about... the history of the magical kingdoms. Of course.

“Hey, y’all!” Patton came up to the two. “Find anything good to read?”

“Indeed. The history of this realm is intriguing.”

“Yeah, I guess it is. But at least we learn from our mistakes, unlike the humans.” Remy said, rolling his eyes.

“Hey!” Roman exclaimed. 

“Roman, calm down. We all know it’s true.” Virgil said, taking his headphones off.

“If you all are ready to leave, I will check this book out, read it later, and return it tomorrow before we leave.” Logan closed the book and stood up.

“Okay.” They all agreed.

When they got back to the house for dinner, Emily had already gotten there. When they walked in, she looked at Virgil and Logan.

“So, you two are Virgil and Logan, eh?” The other four had not told the two about their encounter with Emily earlier, so Logan was confused, and Virgil was internally panicking because how would she know who he is? What if she had crazy mind reading powers and read his mind? Why did he she say their names like that? What did she want with them?

“I met the others in the bakery, and because I didn’t recognize you two, I assumed you were Logan and Virgil. So, who is who?” She explained.

Virgil’s panic instantly subsided. She had met the others.

Logan answered Emily. “I am Logan. This is Virgil.” Virgil gave a weak wave.

“Okay, kids. You should probably figure out where you are sleeping. There’s Patton’s room over there, and Jojo’s room over there. You can sleep on the floors, beds, whatever.” Patton’s mom told them.

They decided that Patton, Logan, and Esker will be in Patton’s room, with Patton on the bed, and Remy, Virgil, and Roman would be in Jojo’s room, with Virgil on the bed. After putting their stuff in the rooms, they came out for dinner.

Now, you may be wondering where our good friend Deceit has been this whole time. Well, he has been there. He just didn’t do anything worth mentioning. Or maybe I forgot him and didn’t want to go back and edit him in. You will never know. For the past two chapters, he has simply been chilling in Virgil’s pocket, wrapped around his arm, or draped over his neck, hissing at people. Some people wondered why this dark element dude was carrying a snake around. Some people didn’t care. I just decided nothing that had happened was important enough to make note of.

At dinner, Roman and Logan learned something new. All plant element people were vegetarian, so they had some sort of vegetabley thing for dinner. This disappointed Roman (he didn’t say anything, as to not hurt Mrs. Larks feelings), but Logan was fine with it.

When they were eating, Deceit decided to crawl down Virgil’s arm, sit on the table, and glare at him. 

“What?” Virgil asked Deceit, knowing he won’t be answered. 

Deceit looked from the food to Virgil, hissing.

“Oh!” Virgil realized that Deceit was hungry. “I will feed you after dinner. There is no way I’m feeding you right now. That is not a good idea.”

“Why?” Mrs. Lark asked. “What does he eat?” She thought for a second. “Wait, never mind. I know.”

After dinner, Virgil fed Deceit, and everybody chilled around the house for a while. It was kind of strange, Emily had a book she was reading, but almost every time Virgil looked up to check his surroundings (he does that because he’s so anxious about everything) she would be staring at him, then look away quickly to try and hide it. This behavior made Virgil super uneasy, to the point where he ended up moving to the other side of the room, on the couch next to Roman.

Eventually, people started to go to bed. First Mr. and Mrs. Lark. Then Esker. After a while, it was just Roman, Virgil, and Emily left in the living room. 

Finally, Virgil decided to say it. “Why do you keep staring at me?”

Emily looked surprised, because she hadn’t really taken him for the confrontational type. “Oh, sorry! I just haven’t seen many light or dark Element people, and the wings are intriguing, especially the way you wrap them around yourself. This is the first time I have seen anybody do that.”

“Oh.” Virgil touched his wing that was wrapped tightly around his side. “I guess it makes me feel safer and more secure.”

“Oh. I see. I’m also kind of worried about going to sleep with that snake around. He’s a Rimi, correct? Meaning he has done something pretty bad.” 

Virgil strokes Deceit. “Yeah. He’s doing better now. That’s how I felt when I started being in charge of him, but then I realized that I have power over him. Lots of it. Remember, he can’t use magic in this form, and he’s stuck in this form while in this realm without direct orders from me or royalty to change back.”

“Oh, okay. I guess that makes me feel a bit safer. I’m going to go to bed.” She walked off to her room.

A little while later, Deceit crawled onto the other side of the couch from where Roman and Virgil were, curled up, and fell asleep.

Virgil and Roman were the last people awake, so- nope. Not anymore. Virgil just fell asleep, putting his head on Roman’s shoulder. Okay, then.

Roman was startled when Virgil fell asleep on him, but he was fine with it. He turned Virgil’s phone off and moved it, closed his book, and grabbed a nearby blanket, put it on the two, and fell asleep as well. 

Now all the Prinxiety shippers are going awwwwww. Including me.


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m sorry not sorry. I was procrastinating for a while, then when I finally felt like writing I went on a camping trip. I finished this chapter and half of 20 while I was up there, so it will hopefully be a shorter time between this chapter and the next one.

In the morning, Roman woke to the smell of pancakes being cooked. He opened his eyes and saw everyone at the table except for Virgil, who was still asleep next to him.

Roman got up carefully, so he didn’t disturb Virgil, then went over to get some pancakes.

“Wha-“ Roman heard Virgil from the living room a little while later.

“Good morning, my dark night!” Roman called.

“Shut up, you moron!” Virgil covered himself with the blanket and lay there for a few minutes before coming to get breakfast. 

After breakfast, everyone packed their stuff for the trip, because they would be setting off around noon.

After everything was packed, Logan and Patton decided to go check on the horses and their stuff.

As they walked to the horse stables on the edge of town, Patton and Logan’s hands touched multiple times.

When they got to the stables, Patton saw something interesting. “Logan, look!” He grabbed Logan’s hand and led him to the other side of the stables.

“Patton, our horses are over there!” He pointed with his free hand.

“I know, but look!” Patton had seen a brown mare with an amber colored foal. “Awww, Logan look how cute it is!” Patton cooed, leaning on the gate. He held his hand out and the foal came up to him on wobbly legs and nuzzled his hand. “Awww!”

“That’s honey. She was just born last night.”

The two turned around to see a tall man with blonde hair and a red plaid shirt.

“She’s so cute!” Patton said.

“Thank you! She looks just like her father. He was a gorgeous stallion, if I do say so myself.

“Was?” Logan asked.

“Yeah. Was. He passed away last month.” The man frowned, remembering his stallion.

“Oooh, that’s so sad!” Patton sniffed. “I wouldn’t be able to take it if my Pila passed away!”

“Patton. You have known that horse for a day. Also, she is not yours. You are aware we will have to give her back to the queen when we come back right?” Logan said. 

“Oh? The queen? Which kingdom?” The man asked.

“Queen Rose.” Patton responded.

“Oh. So are you guys from around here?”

“My parents live over on marsh street.” Patton waved in the general direction of his house.

“Cool.”

“Patton, I think we should check on the horses now. If we take to long, Virgil will become extremely anxious.” Logan said.

“Yeah, I guess so.”

They said goodbye to the man and headed over to where the horses were, and Patton let go of Logan’s hand to go see Pila while Logan checked on the wagon. Logan hadn’t realized that they were still holding hands until they stopped. It made Logan’s heart flutter in an unfamiliar way.

After they made sure all the horses and the stuff on the wagon was okay, the two headed back to Patton’s house. When they left the stables, Patton took Logan’s hand again.

“That was a nice guy.” Patton said. “And his horses are adorable!”

“Y- Yes. Definitely.” Logan responded.

“Are you okay, Lo? You usually don’t stutter.” 

“Yes. I am perfectly fine, Patton.”

They walked the rest of the way to the house, stopping only once because Patton wanted to get doughnuts for his parents to thank them for letting six 20 year olds stay in their house (I mean, that’s super awesome of them, especially sense it’s a four bedroom house).

When they got back to the house, everyone else was ready to leave. Patton’s parents had given them some more food for the trip, and a few supplies they needed but didn’t have. Patton’s parents made sure they were all packed, his mom gave them all hugs, and they set off.

Right before they got the horses out of the stables, there was a snap decision to go see Kamaren at the healer’s hut. 

The healer’s hit was a large building on the edge of the town, with many different herbs and weird flowers growing in front.

Patton knocked on the door, and it opened quickly.

“Pat?” A blonde girl with short hair and blue glasses looked at them.

“Hey, Kam. How’s it going?”

“It’s been great! Saved a few lives, fixed a ton of bones, and helped a couple babies be born. How about you guys come in?” She opened the door wider and let them in.

It was a small room with a desk in one corner, chairs along one wall, and a bin of kids toys near the chairs.

“So, who are you all?” Kam asked, sitting down in one of the chairs.

“This is the group I’m traveling with to the light kingdom. Logan, Esker, Remy, Roman and Virgil.” Patton introduced them.

“Your not staying?” She asked, sadly.

“No. But I will try to visit more often. How about once a year?”

“Alright.”

The two healer’s talked about different healing techniques, herbs, and flowers with healing properties, while Roman and Virgil started arguing about stupid stuff.

Pretty soon, a small boy with a cast on his arm came through one of the back doors.

“Hey eve. How are you feeling?” Kam asked, going over to the kid.

“Bailey threw up.” He said, taking her hand and trying to pull her through the door.

“Oh, no. I’ll be there in just a second.” She told him. “Pat, visit, write and text, okay? Don’t die.”

“Bye Kam!” The group chorused, and she walked away.

They left the healer’s hut and went back down to the horses, got them hooked up to the cart, and left. 

Most of the group was in the wagon, while Roman rode Sunstorm and Virgil rode Dusk, leaving Misty and Pila to pull the wagon. Pila wasn’t exactly a wagon horse, so Misty did most of the work.

Roman and Virgil rode around the wagon teasing and taunting each other (like usual) and boasting about their riding skills to each other. They both knew how to ride but Virgil was a bit better at it than Roman, not that Roman would ever admit it.


	20. A new friend

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, that took a bit longer than I meant it to. The next one will take a while, because I need to think of something to happen, and I’m thinking of starting a new Harry Potter fanfiction.

Soon, the sky started to darken, and they set up camp. They set up their sleeping bags, and realized they didn’t bring tents. Patton got freaked out about sleeping where spiders could get to him, so he and Logan moved their sleeping bags into the wagon, while the others stayed on the ground. They all gathered around the small fire that Esker had lit and chatted.

“What are you looking at, Virgil?” Roman asked, noticing Virgil glance at the bushes every so often.

“Oh, nothing. I just thought I saw something.”

“How? It’s so dark out here.” Roman looked at Virgil.

“Night vision. It comes with being dark element.”

A few minutes, and glances at the bush later, Virgil spoke.

“Come out. I know you’re there.” He said go the bush.

Everyone looked at him weird, until a person stepped out of the dark.

“Who are you?” Remy asked incredulously.

“What do you care?” The person asked. They were wearing a skintight black suit thing, and a mask that went over their mouth and nose. They also had a belt covered with pockets and knives. Their short hair was bleached, and looked like it had been previously dyed, but the dye had faded.

“Uh, it’s kinda creepy that you were in the shadows near our camp.” Esker said.

“Oh. I guess it kinda is. I’m Jordyn. they/them pronouns.” 

“What were you even doing?” Virgil asked suspiciously.

“Stuff.” Jordyn responded. “It doesn’t mater. I’m going to go now.” They started to disappear back into the trees.

“No, wait! Patton called. “At least stay here for the night! It’s dark out there!”

“No, I can-“

“NO!” Patton interrupted them. “You are staying here until morning, you hear me?”

“Gee, Pat. No need to go all mama bear on them.” Virgil said, rolling his eyes.

“Sorry. I just don’t want you to get hurt or lost or...” Patton trailed off, his eyes wide and sad. They could tell that there was a deeper reason that Patton wanted Jordyn to stay, but nobody said anything, and Remy and Virgil exchanged worried glances.

It was obvious that Jordyn could see the sadness in Patton’s eyes too, because they gave in. “fine. I’ll stay.”

Patton regained his usual happy face, but Logan had a feeling it wasn’t completely real. “Great! We even have an extra sleeping bag!”

Jordyn set out their sleeping bag on the ground near Remy’s and then came to sit around the fire with the group.

“Alright. So, I’m Patton, this is Logan, that’s Esker, Logan’s brother, That’s Remy, and those two lovebirds are Virgil and Roman.” Patton pointed at Roman and Virgil, who were sitting unusually close to one another.

“We’re not lovebirds!” Roman cried, his face red.

“What the heck, Patton!” Virgil hid his head in his hood and wrapped his wings around himself, blushing.

Jordyn laughed. “What elements are you guys?”

Remy was the first to answer them. “Obviously I’m light and Virgil is dark, you could probably tell that Esker is fire because he is literally holding a flame, Patton is a healer for the plant kingdom, and Logan and Roman are humans.”

“Humans? Woah. I’m water element, by the way.” Jordyn created a small puddle a few feet away, then made it disappear.

“Oh, cool!” Patton exclaimed. “We have light and dark, and fire and water!”

“Yeah, it sure is.” Remy said. “Do you want to see something me and Virgil discovered a couple years ago?”

“Sure.” Jordyn looked at the two.

Virgil and Remy stood up, and both created small balls of shadow and light. Virgil created a bowl shape with his, and Remy put his light ball inside. Virgil then closed the sphere. They let their creation hover between them, and it was a dim light that is hard to describe, but just looked awesome. After about a minute, Remy exploded his ball of light and it sent shadow and light everywhere before disappearing.

Everyone said some variation of “wow” and the two sat back down.

Pretty soon, everyone was ready to go to sleep, so they got into their sleeping bags, except Remy and Esker, who sat a ways away, whispering with a tiny flame.

After a few minutes, Roman’s hand moved on top of Virgil’s, and he fell asleep.

Virgil wasn’t so quick to pass out. For one, Deceit was being weird and kept slithering around, unable to decide where to sleep. (In Virgil’s sleeping bag? In his pocket? Next to the sleeping bag?) and it was bothering Virgil. Two, Roman’s hand had moved onto his, and for some reason, he didn’t want to move it. And three, insomnia. They were out in the open, in an unfamiliar place, with a person he didn’t know at all.

Logan and Patton were both quick to fall asleep in the wagon, and Jordyn lay awake until Esker put the flame out. Esker and Remy went to sleep after their mysterious conversation (the conversation has nothing to do with the story, I swear.), and Virgil finally got to sleep about 2:00, not that he had any way to check the time. I just know what time it was because I’m writing this story. It’s my story.

The next morning, Remy was the first up. He usually woke up when the sun rises, because he is light element after all. Patton was second awake. He tended to the horses and made Remy’s misquote bites disappear. Third awake was Logan, who also had bites that needed healing. Roman woke up fourth, Esker fifth, and Jordyn sixth. They all sat around doing waking up things and packed up their sleeping bags. Pretty soon, Jordyn noticed Deceit, who had decided on a spot between Virgil’s arm and his side.

“What the heck! There is a snake over there! What if it bites Virgil or something?!” They cried.

“Eh. He’s harmless. That’s just Deceit, he can’t hurt anybody.” Roman said.

“Can’t hurt anybody?! If I heard you correctly, that’s THE DECEIT. The one who killed the dark king a few centuries ago!” Jordyn exclaimed.

“Killed a king?!” Roman backed up a few steps. “I did NOT know he did THAT.”

“Pfft.” Remy scoffed. “You can’t really tell, but Virgil has complete control over Deceit, as in Virgil can make Deceit do whatever he wants, he just chooses not to.”

“That’s good. I didn’t know that.” Jordyn said, turning to look back at the green snake by Virgil’s arm.

About an hour later, Virgil woke up. He was super drowsy, and kept mumbling and yawning. He trundled over to where Roman was sitting, and flopped down on his lap.

“Hi Virgil. Whatcha doing?” Roman asked, looking down at the deflated Virgil blanket on his lap.

“I’m tires.” He mumbled.

“Oh, are you now? What time did you get to sleep?” Roman asked.

“I dunno. Late.”

“Oof.” Roman picked Virgil up gently and put the smol bean in a pile of blankets in the back of the wagon, before packing up Virgil’s sleeping bag and Deceit, and putting them in the wagon as well.

The group hung out for about half an hour longer before Remy said they should probably get going if they wanted to make it to the first town in the Dark kingdom before nightfall.

“Could I... could I maybe come with you guys?” Jordyn asked.

“Of course you can!” Patton was quick to respond.

“Thank you. Do you guys have a mapped route of where we’re going?”

“Yeah, of course.” Esker hopped into the wagon and grabbed his map. “Here it is.” He showed them a route he, Remy, and Patton had drawn out.

“That’s good, but I know a quicker way through the Dark and earth kingdoms, I mean, if you need it.”

“Ooh, That would be great!" Esker said.

“Sure thing. We have to continue this path until we reach the leopa river in the dark kingdom, I will show you the other rout on the way.” Jordyn pontes to the river on the map.

“Okay, lets do it!” Remy exclaimed, hopping into the wagon.

The others agreed, got into the wagon and on horses, and set off.

Roman took a seat on the blankets next to Virgil who was nestled in the pile, and silently put his hand on the other boy’s hand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, Jordyn is a friend that wanted me to write them in! Or, I guess I wanted to write them in and they enthusiastically agreed. Whatever. It was ImNotOkay_IPromise. I don’t think I captured their character very well, but whatever. If you’re reading this, Promise, you may be getting a new personality in this fic. Also, I didn’t mention that I wrote myself in chapter 19 as Kam. She won’t be appearing much, only one more time on their way back to the leaf kingdom. As far as I know...


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this is a Sander Sides fic, not Harry Potter, but for anyone who cares, JK Rowling and Harry Potter turned 54 and 39 yesterday. I just wanted to mention that.

Virgil awoke to the gentle sway of the wagon as it moved. He could hear Remy and Esker talking quietly in the front of the wagon, and the gentle clip clop of the four sets of horse hooves against the ground. He could feel Deceit curled up by his neck, he could feel the warm sunlight on his face, and feel a hand on his. 

“Roman.” Virgil whispered.

“Yes?” Roman gently squeezed Virgil’s hand.

“What time is it?”

“Noon-ish.”

Virgil sighed. “That means we are going to have to cross the kingdom border soon, correct?”

“Yeah. Remy said it’s only about two miles away.” 

“Oh.” Virgil though. “Lucky you guys have me with you. It will take quicker to get through sense it’s my kingdom.” 

The dark kingdom had made themselves waaaay more secluded from everyone else by building a wall similar to the Great Wall of China. Usually dark element people fly over it without trouble, but if anyone else wanted to go through, they would have to go through one of the many ground entrances, and have to have their bags and stuff checked by security guards. Virgil is a higher ranked citizen, that’s why he is able to be in charge of a Rimi, and will be able to get them through without trouble. Having a prince and a healer helps as well. Princes are royalty (obviously) and healers are basically trusted to do the right thing no matter what, and are let free into every kingdom.

Pretty soon, the group could see the wall looming in the distance. Virgil and Esker trades places in the front of the wagon, and Virgil and Remy made sure their wings were extended visibly. Patton and Pila moved next to the wagon, and so did Misty. Logan and Roman started organizing the wagon contents a little more, just in case.

“Who are you?” One of the guards asked when the group reached the entrance.

Remy decided to introduce themselves. “I am Prince Remy, light element, this is Virgil VonVaryant, dark element and Rimi keeper, Patton Lark, healer for the plant kingdom, Jordyn Karp, water element, Esker Berry, Fire element, and Logan Berry and Roman Prince, both humans.”

“Interesting group. Go ahead.” The guard let them through.

As soon as they went through the gate, the atmosphere instantly changed from thin wooded and grassy area, to super busy.

They had entered a super busy place, filled with people walking, horses pulling wagons, people flying through the air on their dark wings, and shops and vendors everywhere. This is how most of the kingdom was, rather than having small villages and woods like the plant kingdom, the dark kingdom was mostly city because of its dense population. When the kingdoms had reached peace, they divided the land equally, meaning some kingdoms had too much space, and some had too little. The dark element people had made it work, though. They had tall buildings with platforms on each floor for taking off and landing, with no need of stairs. 

“It’s busier at night.” Virgil announced. “People around here are more evening and night people, rather than morning and midday.”

“Really?” Jordyn said incredulously. “Is so busy compared to the plant kingdom!”

“Yeah.” Patton said. “About ten years ago, there was a massive plague in the plant kingdom, wiping out 40% of our population.” He looked off into the distance. This was obviously a touchy subject for him.

“And the dark element families just naturally have a ton of kids. The average amount is four to seven kids per family.” Virgil finished for Patton. “Its kinda funny, my parents were humans, and we had a huge family anyway. I have eight sisters.”

“Eight?!?” Esker raises his eyebrows. “I can barely stand one sibling, I would die if I had eight!”

“Yeah? Well I left a long time ago, and I’m not planning on ever going back.” Virgil stared sadly at a passing father who had a small boy on his shoulders and two other young kids running around him.

“I’m sorry, Virgil.” Esker apologized, realizing that family was a difficult subject for the dark haired boy.

They sat in silence for a couple minutes, until Roman got hungry.

“I’m hungry.” The red haired boy announced. “Can we get some food?”

“We have stuff in the backpack.” Virgil nudged the pack towards Roman.

“Fine.”

A few minutes later, Roman spoke again. “There’s nothing fresh in there!”

“Fine, well get you something once we find a place to park the wagon.” Remy said, sighing.

“Yaaaaay!” Roman cheered.

Pretty soon, they had come across a big empty lot that had two other wagons and a pair of horses that were tied up. They put the wagon in the lot, and tied up the horses.

They wandered around the area for a bit, until Jordyn spotted a small restaurant. The only problem was that it was a third floor one, meaning they had to fly up. They wandered around a bit more, and Remy eventually decided to ask if there was any first floor restaurants. Apparently the only other one within walking distance was a crappy restaurant that had high prices and horrible food. So they went to the third floor one.

The ground dwellers (haha sorry) hung out in a gift shop while Remy and Virgil flew up to the restaurant. They borrowed a couple menus and the others chose what they wanted. Virgil and Remy then went back up to order some food to go.

When the two winged boys went back to the gift shop, Logan and the cashier were having a very in-depth conversation about cellular respiration and photosynthesis, while Jordyn was trying (and failing) to convince Esker and Patton that they didn’t need tiny toy dragons.

“Really, Jordyn. What do you have against dragons?” Esker asked.

“Nothing! I just think you shouldn’t waste your money on plastic toys!”

“But Jordyyyyyyyyn!” Patton whined.

“Okay, fine! You do whatever you want, just keep them away from me!”

“Seriously, what do you have against dragons?” Remy asked, coming up behind them.

“Stuff.” They grumbled, crossing their arms.

“What stuff?” Remy asked.

“It’s none of your business!”

Remy decided not to pester them anymore. 

When the door opened for a customer to walk out, a tiny blue bird flew in with a card that had a number 7 on it, telling them that their food was ready.

Virgil and Remy flew up to get the food, and the group sat at a table outside to eat.

“This is delicious!” Jordyn exclaimed, biting into their croissant.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know the croissant was random, but I promised the person I wrote in as Jordyn that they could have a croissant.


	22. Chapter 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I must apologize, a bit of this probably has bad grammar and spelling, but I didn’t sleep last night. Like, at all. I watched the sun rise (Sorta). I’ll try to be asleep by 3 AM tonight, I promise!

Deceit couldn’t stand it. He had been on a road trip with gosh darn Remy Glow for two- no, three days, and the man wouldn’t even look at him, much less acknowledge his existence. On that topic, the only person who seemed to notice him anymore were Virgil and Jordyn, one of which only bothers with him to give him a mouse every so often and make sure the small snake wasn’t being squashed, while the other just snuck nervous glances at him every so often. 

At least at the apartment Virgil actually cared. Or maybe he didn’t care. Maybe it was just an act, and now he’s found better people. Maybe Virgil replaced Deceit with that disgusting slimy evil gorgeous hideous prince, with his nose stuck in the air, acting like there had never been anything between Deceit and Remy.

To say the least, it was heartbreaking. Have you ever been trapped in the body of a snake while your one true love laughed with friends and completely ignored you? No? Well, try not to let it ever happen to you, because it’s absolutely crushing.

They were just passing through a housing area with small groups of children running around when Deceit got completely fed up with being ignored.

Deceit slithered down from his spot on Esker’s backpack and went up to Remy, who was taking a break from leading the horses and had let his new good friend Esker take the reins (that is an expression that I got to add in using a literal sense. Logan would be proud.). 

The snake crawled up Remy’s arm, feeling the involuntary shudder Remy gave while trying to ignore Deceit. He crawled all the way up his arm, put his head near Remy’s ear, and hissed as loud as he could.

Remy jumped, not expecting the noise. “What the hell do you want?!? Just leave me alone already!” Remy grabbed the snake off his shoulder and looked like he was restraining himself from throwing him out of the wagon.

“Woah, woah, woah! Let’s calm down here!” Patton gently took Deceit from Remy and held him close.

“Is this what you wanted? To cause a scene? For it to be about you? You haven’t changed a bit.” Remy snarled at Deceit.

Deceit angry-hissed back at the winged man.

“Wait, you knew him before?” Logan asked, looking at Remy skeptically.

“I... uh... we...” Remy stuttered, then took a deep breath. “We have a bit of history together.”

Roman looked from Deceit’s scaly snake face to Remy’s reddening face, then he, being the master of gayness, got a look of realization on his face. “Ooooooh.”

Pretty soon, the rest of the group caught on, while Virgil sat aside with a grim expression.

Once they had all released what had happened between Remy and Deceit, there was some sort of unspoken agreement not to ever talk about it. Remy and Deceit had both been trying (and failing) to get over their breakup throughout the past fifty-ish years (Yeah, guardians age waaaay slower than humans), and being stuck on a road trip with their ex-boyfriend was not helpful at all.

Deceit decided to sit himself in the front of the wagon and glare out at the world as it went by.

Soon, it was nightfall. When Virgil noticed the sun set, he looked ecstatic. Soon, the streets got way busier, and dark element people were swooping and gliding silently through the air like a swarm of invisible bats.

While the sun was up, they could only see people’s plain black wings, but once the sun went down, they could see the dark blues, greens, purples, maroons, and other dark colors glinting through their wings.

That was just the people. The buildings gave off a warm welcoming feeling as they passed by, and the city environment just felt cheery. 

Remy had put his wings all the way away when the sun set because his wings gave off a bright light in the dark, and it was disrespectful to cast bright lights in the Dark kingdom at night.

The whole city was dark, but was so busy and filled with life. 

After a while of watching people fly around, Virgil spread his wings and flew up into the air and nobody questioned him. 

Roman often noticed how nervous Virgil was, at home and in the plant kingdom, but now, at night in the Dark kingdom, he looked happy and peaceful. Virgil and a couple other people who looked their age had started twirling and flipping in the air higher above the air traffic. One boy got the idea to light tiny shadow balls on his finger tips, so there was dark green lines flowing off his fingers, lingering for a moment before disappearing. The other people followed suite, and soon a small group of people had gathered to watch the show of green, blue, purple and gray lines twirling through the air.

After a little while, though, they got bored and Virgil went back down to the wagon while the other group went another way.

“Wow, Virgil. That was awesome, it looked like you guys were practically reading each other’s minds!” Roman looked at the winged boy in front of him.

“That was aero. It’s sort of a sport thing in the light and dark kingdoms. When a team lights up their fingers like that, there’s sort of a mind-meld thing, where we can sort of read each others minds, but it’s more like it gives us the same idea at the same time so it gets choreographed nicely without being planned ahead. That wasn’t the best routine I’ve ever participated in, but it was fun.”

“That’s so cool!” Patton exclaimed.

“You do aero?” Remy asked, eyebrows raised. 

“I used to, before I moved back into the human world.” Virgil nodded.

For the next two days, they went through the Dark kingdom, following Jordyn’s instructions, and eventually got past the wall that separated the dark and the earth kingdoms.

When they passed through, they were met again with another new sight.

The earth kingdom was very marshy with brick pathways spreading out from the entrance in all directions. The terrain was fairly flat, and they could see pretty far in each direction.

They all got off the wagon to stretch and switch around the horses. Sunstorm was getting tired, so Misty took his place, and Patton hopped on Pila. They gave the horses water at a nearby stream, then headed north.

“Earth kingdom.” Esker said, taking a deep breath. “Smells fresh compared to the stinky city.”

“Hey!” Virgil protested. “Our cities are not stinky!”

“Yeah, sure, whatever.” Esker said sarcastically.

Pretty soon, the group came upon a tiny group of terra-cotta mounds to small to be called a village or a town. Each hut had wooden doors and small windows with shutters each painted different earthy tones like green brown and grey.

They passed through multiple clusters of huts like this, before encountering a person. 

She was a plump older lady who was walking from one hut cluster to another one, arms filled with bags.

She had darker skin, much like Patton’s father, and graying black hair, a kind smile and twinkling brown eyes. She was wearing a grey dress with streaks of green and blue slip on shoes.

When she saw them coming, she called out “do you mind helping an old lady get from one place to another?”

“No problem.” Roman and Patton hopped down from the wagon to help the lady get her stuff onto the wagon.

“Thank you, dears. You can call me Miss. Binns. What might your names be?”

Patton introduced them all and right before he said Deceit’s name, the lady said “oh, Deceit!”

The group stared at her in shock.

“H- how do you know h- his name?” Virgil asked, his dreaded stutter coming back.

“Simple. I’m his mother.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yaaaaaaay


	23. Mother of snake

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took so long! I basically lost all motivation. We’re going back to school tomorrow where I’m from, and I got into the painting mode this weekend and did basically no writing.

“M- mother?” Virgil stuttered, breaking the silence at last.

“Yes. I haven’t seen my boy sense-” She sighed then gingerly picked up Deceit and looked him right in the eyes. “I am very disappointed in you, young one.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Jordyn interrupted. “I thought he was Fire element.” She looked confused. “So was his dad Fire element?”

“Yes, but it’s a little more complicated.” Ms. Binns smiles sadly. “I’m his adopted mother. His biological parents passed when he was very young.”

“Aww, that’s so said!” Patton said.

“It really is.” Jordyn said. Only Virgil saw the deeper pain and sadness in their voice and eyes, one that was more personal.

“So, which one of you are his guard?” She asked.

“Uh, I am.” Virgil said timidly.

Deceit curled himself tighter around his mother’s arm. For the first time in forever, he looked like he felt safe.

Seeing the way Ms. Binns looked at Deceit made Virgil’s heart melt a little. It was adorable. Sometimes Virgil wished there was someone who looked at him that way. His mother used too. Nobody else ever had. Not even people from past relationships.

“I’m sorry I can’t stay. It’s getting a bit late, though. If you would like to stay with me tonight you are more than welcome too. I’m afraid it’s quite small. When I bought it, it only had to house two people so there is a bedroom and a living room you lovely children may invade.

Their original plan was to keep going for a few hours, but they decided not to deny the mother the chance to be with her son for a while. If they left early and traveled late they could probably pull it off.

Ms. Binns has a small pasture and stables behind her house where she kept her horse, Bay. They put the horses away and headed inside.

They arrived at Ms. Binns’s house and it was indeed as small as she had said. The first room was very small and had a couch and coffee table in one corner. It was connected to the equally small kitchen and a hallway. Down the hallway were three rooms, a bathroom and two tiny bedrooms.

Deceit’s old bedroom was plain but had a teenager aura around it because that was the last time he used it.

Right before dinner, Virgil sported Deceit looking at him oddly. Though most people wouldn’t see any difference, but Virgil knew what he wanted. 

Virgil wanted the same thing so much, and he could give it to Deceit, so he did. You see, Deceit wanted to see his mom. Talk to her. Hug her. Virgil did too. But only one of them could have it.

“You may transform.”

Deceit appeared in front of Virgil. He looked sick and weak. He was perfectly healthy, but there was a spell to keep Rimis weak in the elemental realm so they don’t harm their guards.

When Virgil and Deceit walked into the living room, Ms. Binns spotted them from the kitchen where she was making soup. She jumped away from the pot and gave her son a huge hug. Patton took his chance to take over the soup.

“Ma, stop it.” Deceit said into his mother’s shoulder. The reason she was so happy is when you see someone in Rimi form, it’s like talking on skype. They’re there, but they’re not really there.

After the emotional hug, Ms. Binns inspected her son’s face. “I see the scales have moved further down your neck. It’s honestly no surprise your Dereus is a snake.” A Dereus is like a spirit animal. For any sort of spirit related animal transformation, the person will turn into their Dereus.

“They’re actually on my shoulder and chest a bit, too.” Deceit said, putting his hand on his shoulder.

“Your a very reptilian boy.” Ms. Binns stroked Deceit’s scales, and he pushed her hand away.

They all sat down to eat their soup and Deceit commented on how this was the first time he has eaten in his original form (besides a few slices of pizza from Virgil) in years.

“Did you put pineapple in this, Patton?” Ms. Binns asked, making a face.

“It’s the best food ever and I haven’t had anything in forever.” Patton said.

The group chatted happily. They seemed like a family, even though they just met one of the people and the other one was a murderer.

For the first time in many years, Deceit looked fully relaxed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I will now write in your OCs if you give them to me in the comments! Please, do not use your real name. Be prepared for me to ask a few questions so I can get the facts right.


	24. Patton’s illness

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I mentioned this illness was there to I’mNotOkay_IPromise once and they gave me the idea to write it into the story this way!

The group had an uneventful next few days. Until...

“Guys, I don’t feel well. And my magic doesn’t work on me.” Patton groaned when he woke up. He usually wakes up before everyone else, but this time he was asleep much longer.

“Oh Pat. What kind of not feeling good is it?” Esker asked.

“I have a stomach ache and my head hurts and my chest stings and my ankle feels like it’s on fire.”

“Maybe we can find some gemroot for the stomach ache.” Virgil offered. We can look for Yellow Harol too, maybe it will make your headache go away” Virgil offered.

“How did you know that?” Patton looked at Virgil In awe. 

“We don’t have many healers in the dark kingdom so nearly every person knows the basic healing herbs. We have so few healers that there are three healers who rely only on herbs and roots because they don’t have the magic to heal properly.” He shrugged after finishing his thought.

“Oh.” Patton though for a second. “But those won’t help me. I need to see a real healer.”

“We should be at the light palace right after sunset. We can get you help there.” Remy said.

“T- thank you.” Patton whispered before passing out and falling on Logan’s lap.

“PATTON!” Logan screeched, grabbing the younger boys arm.

“Oh my god!” Remy said, looking back at the others before making the wagon go faster.

The golden hills rolled by with a few trees dotting them. The group passed a herd of deer. Soon, they entered the outskirts of the city. Virgil silently folded up his wings and Remy spread his a little wider.

It took a while, but they got to the palace before sunset, sooner then they had anticipated.

They got to the large, grand, wooden door In front of the palace and Remy got out, talked to one of the guards, and the door opened. The door was a dark red color with white patterns all over it. Swirls, stars, hearts, diamonds, circles, everything was on that door.

The door opened into a courtyard and they went through. Soon, most of the group found themselves in Queen Glow’s throne room. Logan, carrying Patton, had followed the official royal healer through another door, and Remy ad gone up to talk to his mother about arrangements. 

The group would have to stay longer because of Patton’s illness, and though Remy was only supposed to bring the group to the palace, he wanted to go along and help them do the... chore... Queen Glow has requested them for.

After about ten minutes, a young girl who’s wings were white and pastel blue tints came running through the heavily lit throne room. 

“My Queen!” She cried, bowing quickly. “Healer Terrance has sent me. We have figured out what is wrong with Patton!”

“What is it?” Everyone asked at once. 

“He has the red death!” 

There was an audible gasp from everyone in the room (including the guards and servants) except Roman at her words. Some people flinched. Some covered their mouths in shock. One of the servants eyes were brimmed with tears for a reason nobody knew.

———————————————- As some people may know I had made a sort of side work called “Short stories from Not an Angel's healers” it has turned into healer-related short stories. After this chapter is done and posted, I will post a chapter in it about Patton’s sickness. It will go into more detail about the Red Death and I highly recommend reading it. I will also write a chapter about this servant and the reason they started crying when they heard Patton had the red death.  
————————————————

“Guys, what’s the red death?” Roman asked innocently.

Virgil went over to him and whispered “it’s basically an incurable disease that some people are diagnosed with at birth because of a bright red dot on their ankle. Sometime throughout the persons life it will start to spread and make them really sick. It’s a 99.99% chance of death. We are probably going to l- l- lose P- Patton.” Virgil was chocking up and tears were streaming from his eyes. 

Roman’s vision started to go blurry and he rocked in his place before falling to his knees. Virgil was close behind and they found themselves holding each other close on the floor. 

Roman looked over Virgil’s shoulder and the others were behaving the same way. Teary eyed. Clinging to someone else. Sitting, laying, or kneeling on the floor. Because they all knew one thing.

They were probably going to lose the only person who holds them all together. Patton

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys, I’m serious. I am writing mini stories and I want you to red them! There is only one chapter right now but it should go up to three pretty soon.


	25. Chapter 25

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is fairly short. I’ve been trying to balance all sorts of stuff. Trying to bring my grades up (luckily they are pretty okay at the moment) home life, I’m the president of my school’s GSA club now.

“Look, we will take care of Patton. Hopefully he will get better in his own. We just have to wait.” There was someone talking to Logan. He couldn’t tell who it was. His mind felt numb and he didn’t know where he was. All he could think was “Patton’s going to die. Patton’s going to die.”

The world around him was a blur, but soon he regained focus. He wasn’t In the throne room anymore. It looked like... a bedroom? Yes. That was it. He was sitting in a cushioned chair next to a bed where Virgil and Roman were sitting. 

Virgil was sitting on Roman’s lap. Virgil wasn’t crying at the moment, but it was clear he had been by the way his eyeshadow was streaked down his cheeks. Esker was on the other side of the room, pacing back and forth. Jordyn was sitting in a corner of the room with Deceit curled around their arm, watching Esker pace.

Logan looked back toward Roman and Virgil and caught Virgil’s eye. Virgil gave a weak smile and Logan nodded in response.

It seemed like hours, though it was probably only a few minutes, until someone came into the room. Remy.

“Patton is still out, but he’s still alive.” Remy said.

Logan let out a breath that he didn’t know he was holding.

Remy seemed to notice this. “We can have one person visit him at a time. Logan? Do you want to come?”

Logan stood up and was next to Remy faster then he knew he could move. Remy led him down a long hall, turning a few corners and nodding to some of the winged people scattered around.

When they got to the healer’s room, Logan spotted Patton instantly. There was a girl Logan didn’t recognize sitting by Pat’s bed, and when she spotted Logan and Remy, she hurried away, giving a brisk nod to Remy.

Remy stayed by the doorway while Logan went towards Patton.

Patton was as still as stone. Logan would have thought him dead if he couldn’t see the gentle rise and fall of Patton’s chest. Logan put his hand on Patton’s open palm and took a deep breath.

He stood there in silence until he felt pressure on his hand. Looking down, he saw Patton had curled his fingers around Logan’s hand. Patton was looking at Logan through tired eyes.

“I’m sorry I got sick on the trip.” He said, barely audible.

“I am sorry I did not recognize how sick you were prior to ariving. If I had I would have gotten you medical attention immediately and we would not be in this situation.” Logan said quietly.

“It’s not your fault, Lo. There’s nothing anyone could have done.” His grip slackened and his eyes closed again. Logan watched the gentle rise and fall of Patton’s chest before turning around and walking out of the room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woooooooooooo I really need inspiration.
> 
> Please comment. Please. I beg you. Somehow I hate social interaction yet it’s the only thing that keeps me motivated.


	26. Chapter 26

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I realized Jordyn doesn’t get much time on the page so I gave them a chapter. I am also going to work on having more character development and page time for Deceit and other characters.   
> ATTENTION ARCHERS!!!  
> don’t kill me for the way I did the scoring! I am doing archery in school and we use a basic scoring that may not be the same that everyone uses! And targets may be set up differently as well, so don’t get mad!

“I guess our trip will have to be extended for a while.” Jordyn commented at dinner.

The group had been invited to dinner by the queen, but it wasn’t as official as most royal dinners would be. Logan, Jordyn and Esker were planning what to do while Patton was sick. Remy, Roman, and the Queen were talking about something (Jordyn couldn’t quite hear what) and Virgil was just eating in silence with Deceit around his arm, lost in his own thoughts.

The Royal cook kept bringing out more and more dishes. Roman seemed to be scarfing down everything put in front of him. Virgil next to Roman was picking at his food, and from what Jordyn had seen, only eaten one bite.

After dinner Jordan and Virgil went up to the archery range to shoot some arrows, as they both knew how. 

After shooting a few arrows and getting bullseyes on all of them, Jordyn came up with an idea. “How ‘bout we get on the horses and see if we can hit targets while running by.”

“Alright, I have no objection.”

The pair went and saddled up some of the palace horses. They rode out and grabbed the bows and went a few hundred yards away.

“Do you want to go first?” Jordyn offered to Virgil.

“Nah, you can go.”

“Alrighty. I’m going to go slower this time and go faster next time.” Jordyn rode past the target at a trot and got their arrow in the black section of the target, giving them 3 points.

Once Jordyn cake to a full stop a few hundred yards on the other side of the target, they motioned for Virgil to go ahead.

Virgil and the horse trotted by the target and got the arrow in the white portion of the target, giving him one point.

They repeated this until sunset and again for half the day the next day, until they got bored. In the end, their highest scores were Jordyn in the red portion giving them 7 points at a full gallop and Virgil getting an arrow in the blue section giving him 5 points at a full gallop.


	27. Fluff

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I felt some fluff was needed in these dark times.

Virgil went and curled up in the chair next to Patton's bed, head on his knees, arms and wings wrapped around himself. He watched Patton breathe, mainly making sure he still was breathing.

The door opened and a girl walked in. She jumped when she saw Virgil.

"Hullo" Virgil mumbled.

"Hi. I'm sorry to intrude. I'll go." She stepped back.

"No, it's okay. You can stay, it's alright." He sighed and looked down at the floor. "Do you need somethin'?"

"Not really. Just reassurance that he is okay." The girl said, rubbing her arm. "You see, my younger sister had the same thing. She didn't make it, and I-" she took a deep breath, tears streaming down her face.

Virgil looked up at her and made eye contact, something he did very rarely. "Hey," he said softly. "It's okay. We're going to be okay." Saying the phrase Roman said when Virgil was sad or anxious. 

The girl sat in the chair opposite the bed from Virgil. "I'm Able." She said softly.

"Virgil."

They say in silence until Roman stepped into the room. 

"Virgil. Esker and Remy wants all of us to go meet them in Remy's office." Roman told Virgil.

"A'ight." Virgil slid out of his chair. He glanced at Patton and gave Able a small wave before following Roman out of the room.

When the pair arrived at the office, Logan raised his eyebrow at them and they realized they were holding hands, and quickly stepped away from each other. Logan smirked at them in amusement, before turning his attention back to the map he had been drawing.

"Aha you guys are finally here!" Remy exclaimed. 

Virgil looked around the room at the people he had been traveling with. There was Remy and Esker, sitting oddly close to each other. There was Jordyn, fiddling with their necklace and trying to sit without taking their quiver of arrows off their back. There was Logan, putting precise, detailed lines on a map. There was Deceit, a yellow/green snake curled up in the arms of Jordyn, his red toung flicking out every so often. And Roman, the wonderful actor he had grown to greatly adore. The only one who wasn't there was Patton. Kind, sweet, caring Patton who didn't deserve to fall so ill.

"So. We have news." Esker said excitedly. "We, me and Remy, are dating!"

Logan looked at his brother in shock. "Your gay?" He asked.

"Bi, but close enough." Esker chuckled.

"And you are to?" Virgil asked Remy.

"Precisely, little man. Very gay."

Virgil rolled his eyes at being called 'little man' but otherwise ignored it.

The group chatted, trying to make jokes and lighten the mood more than Esker and Remy already had, but there was still a feeling of dread left in the air. Dread of what might happen to Patton.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I ship Remile 100% but I have been planning this ever sense the chapter where they met Jordyn, but I haven't had a chance to do it. Sense Esker isn't a real side it doesn't count as jumping ship (I made that up just now, it means putting characters together that you don't ship. Let me know if that's already a thing.) I will include more about Able in the future, but if you want to know more about her story, I have a chapter in my work called "short stories from Not an Angel's healers" I think it's chapter 3. Btw those can be read in any order.


	28. Patton

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Read end notes for important stuff!!!

Dear Patton, darling, what to say to you?  
You have my heart,   
you have all of our trust.

When you said "I love you", you smiled and it warmed my heart.

I'm dedicating every day to you  
Emotion filled life was never quite my style   
When you smile, you knock me out, I fall apart  
And I thought I was so smart.

You have fallen ill in this grand kingdom  
We'll bleed and fight for you. We'll make it right for you.  
If we love and trust and fight  
You just might survive.

"Logan?"

Logan stopped singing and looked down at Patton who was bundled tightly in his blankets.

"Patton!" He gasped. The small, thin, pale boys eyes were open and gazing up at him. There was a small smile on the boy's face.

"Hi Logan." His voice was raspy, his eyes were dull, and he still looked very sick, but he was alive.

"Oh, Patton!" Logan's eyes brimmed with tears, a look of pure relief on his face.

Just then, the healer walked into the room and looked at the two boys making eye contact. "Is he... is he awake?" She asked, hurrying over.

"Hello." Patton said from the bed.

"This is a very good sign!" She exclaimed. "Usually people with this illness... they don't wake up from the coma state. Ever. Patton is awake, so that improves the chances of his survival from 0% to 37%!"

"That's... awesome." Logan didn't express it much, but he was extremely glad of that result. He wished it could be 100% though.

Patton tried to sit up but just flopped back down on the bed. "Lo lo, I can't use my body very well."

"That's normal. You're still very sick." The healer came up behind Logan and handed Patton a jar of odd blue liquid. 

"Ah," Patton nodded in recognition. "Crushed Bubbleroot mixed with a bit vegetable oil. Good for strengthening the immune system." He sipped it and made a face of disgust. "Still tastes terrible."

Logan day in silence, holding Patton's hand while the sick boy finished his Bubbleroot concoction.

Patton was alive. It was the best thing that had happened the whole trip, Patton waking up. Logan didn't know what he would have done without Patton. There was still a 73% chance that Patton wouldn't make it. If he lost Patton... he didn't want to think about that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sory it was super short. I have been so busy, I just wanted to get a chapter out. I am planning on finishing the song in the beginning. I was rewriting "Dear Theodosia" from the Hamilton musical, it's a good song. I will probably post the finished product of the rewritten song in my "Short storys from Not an Angel's healers" even though it's not a short story OR from a healer XD. I thank Nanaamaro (hope I spelled it right) with their comment saying that true love or music should fix this, so I did both. Thanks for the awesome idea Nanaamaro!


	29. Patton likes to have some fun

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry this has taken so long! I have been dealing with school and personal stuff. My mom is struggling with issues with a cancer removal surgery, my dad is super sick (not corona virus), I'm going through a breakup, and I hardly know who I am anymore. School is closed because of the corona, so I will hopefully be able to write more. I know it's trash but I'm still writing it I guess.

Patton was awake and walking around. He had been for two days. When he had walked into a room where his travel mates were, they were all shocked and overjoyed.

Patton had a plan for today. He went out into one of the small gardens of the castle and looked through all the flowers.

"Aha!" He found the familiar thick, heart shaped, purple petals, and long, round, pastel green oval shaped leaves. He pinched a petal with his nails, and the familiar purple goo ran over his fingers.

This was the purple corcra flower, often used for dying cloth. It was so pigmented that two flowers could dye five square feet of white fabric. Patton picked three of them and put them in a jar he had been carrying on his belt.

Patton then went back into the castle and put his jar into his bedroom before going out to see what the rest of the group was up to.

Patton found Logan right where he expected to. The library. What was unexpected was that Roman was sitting next to him at the table, also reading. Patton snuck up behind Logan and put his hand over Logan's eyes. "Guess who it is!"

Logan sighed. "Patton, I know that you know that I know it's always you. And you are smudging my glasses."

"You're right!" He removed his hands and pulled up a chair next to Logan. "What are you two up to?"

"We are studying the animals and plants that are here and not back on earth." Logan told him.

"Technically we are still on earth, it's an island the size of Russia that is magically squished into a tiny island in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle. The reason things always went missing there was that during the war, ship parts often had to be used to repair and protect the area. All the people on those ships eventually integrated into our population. Things still go missing because of a giant squid that Queen Aqua had claimed as her pet during the time." He told them, showing them a drawing of the squid in his book.

"Yup! We had to study that in school here. All that history stuff got really boring." Patton said.

"I think it's really cool!!!" Roman exclaimed loudly, earning a hissed "shhhh" from the librarian.

After talking a bit more with the two, Patton decided to go find his dark haired companion.

Patton quickly found Virgil with Jordyn at the horse stables. The pair had been going there every day, bringing Deceit along with them, sometimes spending hours among the horses.

"Hey!" Patton waved at the two. Virgil was on his favorite of the horses, Dusk, and Jordyn was about to get on one of the brown horses named Pip that the stable girl let them ride. Ew

"Hi, Pat!" Jordyn waved back. "Want to ride with us?"

"Yeah, sure! I'm not wearing riding clothes like you two, but I think this will do." Patton gestured to the old grey shirt he had tucked into a pair of baggy brown pants. This was a basic outfit that people often wore while working or if they were lower class. Though Patton has been sullied with fancier outfits, he found it most practical and comfortable.

"Yeah, that should work. Need help saddling up Pila?" Virgil asked.

"No, I think I can do it." He [insert horse preparing stuff that I don't know and don't have time to research. Feel free to let me know what I should do in the comments! I would love for a horse lover to help me out!]

Once he finished that stuff, he got on the pinto mare and caught up with Virgil and Jordyn. "Where are you two going today?"

"Well, usually we do jumps and stuff," Jordyn responded "but today were planning on taking a loop around the fields. We may end up in the forest, but I don't know."

Jordyn ran a hand through their bleached hair and flipped it. Patton noticed that a bit of jet black hair was starting to show at the base, and the old faint blue color was completely gone by now.

They rode around the grounds for about an hour, and when Virgil and Jordyn were planning on heading into the forest, Patton told them he was done for the day and rode off to the stables to put Pila away.

By the time Patton had made it back to the main part of the castle, it was about 5:00. He wandered through the huge, chandelier-lit halls of the castle before finally coming across the Prince's wing, where he knew Remy would be.

Patton ran into a few servants and chatted with them in his normal, good-natured manner. With the side of one of the boys, he finally came across Remy's room.

He knocked, and Esker answered, letting him in after a short greeting.

It appeared as if Remy and Esker were going over Eskers maps again. Esker would probably have married those maps if he could, and they were spread out on a table whenever he got a chance.

The three chatted a bit about nonsense and maps (of course). The map that they had put on the table was a map of the entire realm. It was one that marked where Esker had been in his life. There seemed to be red dots in every kingdom except the water kingdom, something that was strange to Patton.

"You've never been to the water kingdom?" He asked.

"Nah, they don't like us and we don't like them."

"'Us' being..." Pat prompted.

"Fire element. Fire and water don't get along at all." Remy rolled his eyes as Esker said this, as he had endured many rants about how annoying water element people were.

"They are always to calm and quiet, no sense of fun. It's so annoying!" Esker complained.

"Jordyn isn't like that." Patton observed.

"That's different."

"Yeah, anyway," Remy interjected "we have some mapping to do."

After the short visit, Patton headed off to find Roman again, having thought of something he hadn't before. Roman and Logan were still in the library, though they had moved to the fiction section.

"He guys!" Patton greeted them again. "What are you two up to?"

"We are finding out what sorts of things people in this realm view as 'fantasy fiction', as many things our world views as fantasy are real here." Logan responded.

"Oh! My favorite book is Chatter by ImNotOkay_IPromise." Patton found it and plucked it off the shelf and handed it to Roman. "Anyway, there was a reason I came back. Do you still have that purple glitter, Roman?"

"Yeah. Do you need to borrow it?" Patton modded in response. "It should be on a shelf in my room. Want me to go with you to grab it or do you want to go by yourself?"

"I could grab it. You two have fun with those books!" He called back, hurrying off.

Patton eventually found Roman's glitter and took it back to his room.

Pretty soon, the sun had set, dinner had been eaten, and everyone was getting ready for bed.

Once Patton's tiny clock struck midnight, he stepped out of his room and put his plan to action.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anyone knows what I could write for that horse stuff, please tell me in the comments!


	30. Chapter 30

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> READ NOTE PLEASE  
> Well here is like five paragraphs of this chapter. I was going to finish it but I don't know if I can. I don't know if I can do anything with this story anymore. I have no good plot, and I can't write anyway. I hardly have motivation to get out of bed anymore, much less write. I have way to many ideas in my head, and they have drowned out this one. I may come back to this someday, but for now I'm going to see if I have any ideas for my other works in progress. If not, I will stick to my one-shots that I write at 1 AM when I can't sleep. I'm sorry, folks. If you are looking for something to read I recommend basically anything by ImNotOkay_IPromise or a new favorite of mine, "To Make a Home" by AValorousChoice

"AUGH!!!"

Roman shot up at the sound of Virgil's disgusted shriek.

"What happened!?! Are you okay!?! Why am I in your room!?! I will kill whoever is hurting you!!!" Roman jumped up. And reached for his sword that was laying five feet away.

"Look at this mess!!!" Virgil was clutching his hair that was now a deep purple, with glitter all over it.

Roman burst out laughing, dropping his sword and doubling over.

"Did you do this!?!?" Virgil glared are Roman.

"No, but whoever did, did a great job!"

"Who else besides you would do this?" Virgil started brushing glitter off his bed.

"Maybe Esker? Or Patton?" Roman suggested.

"You're the one who had glitter. I remember when you got it from Talyn's!"

"Patton borrowed it from me. I didn't have it last night."

"PATTON!!!!" Virgil screamed.

After Virgil tried and failed to wash the color out of his hair, the two got ready to go out. Virgil put an old cloak on and put the hood up, Roman collected the books he and Virgil had been reading the night before, grabbed Deceit, and they left the room.

"Heeeey Virgil~" Patton smirked when he saw Virgil and Roman walk into the common room the group had been using.

"Go away, Patton." Virgil sneered, going to the other side of the room and flopping onto a couch.

"Lemme see!" Patton cried, leaping over to where Virgil was and pulling his good off. "EEEEEEEEEE it's so good!!!"

"Why the f*ck did you do this?!?" Virgil growled.

"I wanted to have some fun! It comes out, don't worry." 

"I'm going to go wash it out." Virgil got up and started towards the door.

About an hour later, Virgil came back. His hair was glitter-free, but it was still just as purple.

"It won't come out! Why won't it come out!?!?" He growled at Patton.

"I know how to get it out but I'm not going to tell you yet."

**Author's Note:**

> I have a friend, ImNotOkay_IPromise who wrote a story called Different and one called Chatter! Go check them out please!


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